'We Can Go On and Win This,' Says Bafana Coach

May Mahlangu of South Africa scores one of the goals which took the host team through to the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Durban — South Africa were perilously close to becoming the first host team in almost two decades not to make it past the first round at the African Nations Cup. But their ability to find their way back twice and draw with Morocco on Sunday night gives them renewed hope for the knockout phase.
Bafana Bafana eventually topped Group A on a topsy-turvy, drama-filled Sunday night at the tournament, where the permutations changed repeatedly. All four sides, at various stages of an unfolding 90-minute saga, were in with a chance of qualification during the match in Durban and that being played simultaneously in Port Elizabeth between Cape Verde and Morocco.
May Mahlangu and Siyabonga Sangweni both scored in the last 20 minutes to equalise for South Africa after Morocco had twice caught their defence napping.
Coach Gordon Igesund described it as a tough game but “we’ve now achieved our first objective,” he said.
“We had to cancel out two goals from Morocco that we should never have allowed in, but we did what we had to do.”
South Africa now believes that with a little momentum and good fortune they can go all the way to the final at Soccer City on February 10.