Despite growing concerns among supporters following a five-match winless run, former Bafana Bafana captain Steven Pienaar has backed his country to beat co-hosts Mexico 2-0 in the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening match.
Bafana Bafana will begin their Group A campaign against Mexico at the iconic Estadio Azteca on Thursday, 11 June.
The build-up to the tournament has done little to ease supporters’ nerves.
Hugo Broos’ side has failed to register a victory in 2026, a run stretching back to their Round of 16 defeat to Cameroon at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco in January.
Recent warm-up matches against Panama and Nicaragua also failed to inspire confidence, with many questioning whether the squad is ready for football’s biggest stage.
Also, the 1996 AFCON champions face a daunting task in Group A, with all three opponents ranked significantly higher in the latest FIFA rankings.
Mexico are currently 14th in the world, while South Korea sit 25th and Czech Republic are ranked 39th. South Africa enter the tournament as the 60th-ranked nation.
Also Read: We’re Scared Of Playing Bigger Countries —Ex- Bafana Head Coach
But former Everton midfielder Pienaar, who represented was at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, believes the current Mexico side is not that good.
“I think it’s going to be 2-0 for Bafana Bafana and I think this team is much better than the team we had and Mexico is not as good as the team from 2010,” he was quoted by The South African.
Also backing Bafana Bafana is their former head coach Gordon Igesund.
According to Igesund, Bafana have already shown their resilience by overcoming numerous challenges during the qualification campaign.
“We do know it’s going to be a tough game, but I think we have the character. Getting into this stage was very difficult,” he told SABC.
“At some point we lost points, there were some difficulties, but they overcame all the obstacles along the way.”
2 Comments
If wishes were horses
Hehehe, even if wishes were horses, beggars will find it hard to mount in this situation.
If the lacklustre, listless performance SA produced against the Raggae Boyz is what they intend to repeat at the world cup, then e don be for them. Dem go collect wotowoto.
Mexico are a team that are supremely confident when playing teams they believe are ranked below them. They will strip SA naked on that day. To survive, SA must do better than what we saw against Jamaica.
The thing with Mexico though is they fall to pieces mentally once the opponent is higher ranked than they are. Teams like Brazil, Argentina, and other strong South American countries have dominated Mexico for ages for this reason. In fact, someone once joked that if you put eleven heavily pregnant women on the pitch and give them Brazil jerseys, Mexico will still lose. This is something they need to overcome to move forward.