Ronwen Williams urges Bafana Bafana to secure Afcon qualification early

Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams wants South Africa to confirm their place at Afcon as soon as possible and avoid facing increased pressure in the later stages of qualifying.

South Africa lead Group D after winning their opening two matches against Guinea and Eritrea. They face Kenya at Orlando Stadium on tonight (6pm), before the teams meet again in Nairobi on Tuesday.

“We’ve started well; we need to keep going and make sure that we maintain our position because we don’t want to get a draw outcome in March… because that’s a very stressful moment,” Williams said at a press conference yesterday.

“If we can wrap it up as soon as possible, then we play with freedom and less pressure, and that’s when we can play at our best.”

Only one side will qualify from Group D because Kenya have already secured their place at Afcon as one of the hosts, alongside Uganda and Tanzania.

Williams said that made the section different from the other qualifying groups and left South Africa and Guinea competing for the available qualification place.

“We know our group is a bit different from all the other groups,” the Bafana Bafana skipper said. “We know we’ve got Kenya in our group, and we know what that means… it means only one team qualifies, and if you look at this moment, it’s between us and Guinea.”

Williams targets maximum points

The goalkeeper is confident South Africa can take six points from their two matches against Kenya’s Harambee Stars, who are coached by former Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy.

“We are well-equipped to reach our target, which is six points. We know we can get it, but it’s not going to be easy,” Williams said.

He also acknowledged the difficulty of playing the same opponents twice in a short period, with each match likely to require different preparations.

“Each game brings its own challenges, responsibilities and game plan… as much as you’re playing the same team, there are a lot of things that can change going into the second game,” Williams added.

Williams believes South Africa have improved their ability to handle matches against less-fancied opponents, after previously suffering upsets in games where they were expected to win comfortably.

He said the team’s progress had been shaped by its past experiences and the lessons taken from every training camp.

“It’s the experiences and history that have helped us [to show up against minnows]. We try to learn in each and every camp. We’ve always made it difficult for ourselves in these games [against less-fancied sides, where they are expected to win easily], but I think we’ve learnt and grown as a team,” Williams said.