Mosimane rues late lapse as South Africa are held by Kenya in AFCON qualifier

South Africa coach Pitso Mosimane said a loss of concentration cost Bafana Bafana two valuable points as Kenya scored a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw in their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2027 qualifier at Orlando Stadium.

The result leaves South Africa one point ahead of Guinea in Group D, with seven points from three matches.

Bafana Bafana took the lead in the ninth minute when Kenya defender Amos Wanjala scored an own goal. However, Kenya levelled through Michael Olunga’s penalty just before half-time.

South Africa had numerous opportunities to restore their advantage and put the match beyond Kenya, but were unable to convert enough of their chances.

They eventually moved back in front in the 77th minute through Relebohile Mofokeng. Their position appeared secure until captain Ronwen Williams was penalised for holding on to the ball for more than eight seconds.

The resulting corner helped Kenya regain momentum, and they scored a last-gasp equaliser to deny South Africa victory.

Mosimane said the incident provided a difficult but important lesson for his players.

“When a team concedes a goal at that time, you can say we lost concentration, we could have done better. When we scored also in the 88th minute, we can also say they lost concentration,” he said.

“It’s football, we could have done better, maybe as we went out from that because the goal came from the new laws of the goalkeeper having the ball, keeping it longer.

“He created a corner kick, we went out and when it came back it was a goal. They have to learn that it needs character, easy to point out mistakes and point out individuals, not for me, I’ve been in football for long.

“I don’t know how it’s gonna end, maybe you know, if you know I’ll prepare differently but we have to travel the route. Everybody wants to end where we want but nobody wants to travel the difficult route to end where we want to end.”

Mosimane also pointed to South Africa’s failure to make their first-half chances count as a major factor in the draw.

“Football tells you that it’s not about ball possession and it’s not about how many chances you create, it’s about how many chances you take and Kenya showed that. They don’t need much to cause an upset on us and the few chances they got, they used them,” he added.

“I think if you want to see how many chances we missed it’s a series. I got reminded that I haven’t been around for some time, welcome home. In South Africa we can miss a lot and not take chances and I think it’s about all, it’s about taking chances, what can we say.”