Former South Africa international Doctor Khumalo says he’s confident Bafana Bafana will overcome the Super Eagles in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June.
In an interview with SABC News, Khumalo stated that South Africa’s performance at the just concluded 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, gives the team a big hope in their quest to qualifying for the World Cup.
“For them to qualify, let’s not dismantle it; it’s not yet broken. So, let’s give Hugo [South Africa coach] support.
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“Helman and the background staff, and the boys, let’s allow them to continue the way they did in Ivory Coast.
“I would like to believe that Nigeria is in our group, but from what I have seen in Ivory Coast, I can bet all my money that SA can overcome that obstacle.”
Both Nigeria and South Africa find themselves in Group C of the World Cup qualifiers, alongside Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of Benin.
While the Super Eagles started their campaign with draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, South Africa secured a win against Benin but suffered a defeat at the hands of Rwanda.
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COMMENTS
As the thing they pain them, he they sweet us.
Nigeria will beat South Africa home and away.
God bless Nigeria.
Gbam!
Wetin dey sweet us? You think the man is saying this out of pain or hope after witnessing our park the bus method? If after the semi final and final performance by the eagles you doubt this Khumalo hope then you’re not watching football. Even against Angola and Cameroon the pressure we had to deal with will give hope to any team that is facing us. If Nigeria must make it in football we must get a proper coach and do away with this park the bus to win mentality and come out with a decent total football philosophy. CIV and RSA played the kind of football that will make their people proud no wonder they can hope for a bright future.
yes o!
You are on point sir , that’s exactly my worries.
Na so ooh
This guy is going to be penniless after the qualification series because he has said now before the whole world that he will bet “all his money” that SA will beat Nigeria in the world qualifiers – this means he is going to be penniless after the series without a shadow of a doubt – by the way, please don’t get me wrong, I would NEVER wish bad on another person, this is nothing to do with me – I am just repeating what he has been alleged to have said and reacting to it – The only thing is that I pray that our coach opens his mind and uses common sense and intelligence and recognise glaring deficits in the team that represented us in the just concluded AFCON’s -which the whole nation already knows about and agrees with – he must not cause any problems by playing players who will obviously weaken the team – I will not mention any names at this point because enough has been said and the names (3 in particular) are well and truly out there in the “air” and all over social media, suffice just to add that one of the most crucial areas where one of the players in question operates is in our midfield.. If the coach knows these weaknesses and moves strongly to rectify them then – I am VERY confident that Bafana Bafana are no match at all for the Super Eagles and we will wipe the floor with them – there will be woto woto on witness in those 2 games home and away and only one team will be on the receiving end of it and that team will not be the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Over to you oga Peseiro!
Oya let’s goo!
Shalom!
Y’all can thank me later for vomiting raw sewage. Lol
fralala krumble – are you even a Nigerian? I very much doubt it for 2 main reasons-
1) There are not many Nigerians living the kind of sick lifestyle you are living
2) That nasty name arara krumbsie is definitely not a Nigerian name lool!
I feel sorry for your sad life – lol, have you heard of CANCER?? Teehehe, not only are you a depraved sinner, a battyman, a poof, a gay man for the less informed or what we call a backdoor bandit, but you tried to start something which you were in no way able to defend and I smacked you back into the dark ages, now you are relegated to the role of an angry, bad belle troll, that kind of attitude and mindset only breeds cancer, Let a word be enough for the wise!
Looking to troll everything I say about my dear country lool! Either GET A LIFE for your own damn good or Continue, if you know what’s good for you, you would choose wisely and jog on and let go of the bitterness borne out of you not measuring up lol – console your sad, depraved and demented self with the fact that you started all this – I have never initiated any communication with you, I never would, you are a depraved animal and have no fear of God to be living such a decadent life with boobs boobs boobs on your imbecilic mind – I would have even prayed for your deliverance but as you seem to be a glutton for punishment, you might as get it – the straight up truth! hahahaha
Repent and give your depraved existence and life to Christ before you miss Heaven and give up trolling before it’s too late for you here on CSN because I will rip you a new one. Trust me! lool!
Friggin Plank teehehehe
Who noticed that almost all the teams we played against think they were better, even when they lost against us. That’s the flip side of the formation adopted by our Mourinho. And it’s not as if we don’t have the firepower to put these teams in their proper place. But when you have a coach who thinks every match should be approached the same way, this is what you get. I’ve heard the Angolan, the Cameroonian and even the GNU coaches say the same thing. They are right because apart from goals, another thing which indicates that a team is better in a match is the possession, and they all had better statistics against us.
If Peseiro’s contract will be renewed, the NFF should sit him down and do a thorough analysis of the this defensive system. You can’t be under pressure in all the matches you play and expect to win them all. Let him look for more midfielders. Iwobi and Onyeka were seriously overworked in that competition. If deliberate attempt isn’t made to reinvigorate our midfield, we may end up proving Khumalo right. In fact, we won’t win most of our matches in the qualifiers, especially the away games.
The Iwobi-Onyeka combo effectively left us with only one central midfielder on the pitch.
Iwobi was physically present in the midfield, but he’s not a central midfielder. You might as well have a striker in goal and say you have a goalie. I’d rather have Uzoho in goal than Sadiq Umar, for example. It’s the same thing.
Iwobi did his best. One thing you can never fault him for is EFFORT. He really tried. But he was deployed in the wrong role. His positions are AM and winger, right or left, as he uses both feet well. Play him there, and he will give you good value.
If we had another PROPER central midfielder alongside Onyeka, the midfield dominance other countries had against us would have been reduced. CIV and SA for instance would have had a tougher time controlling the game in this scenario.
The other issue of course is our wastefulness in front of goal. If we converted all the chances we had against EG for example, how can they say they were better than us when the scoreline says we hammered them 4-1? SA could have lost 3-1 or more against us, if we had taken our chances. We even had the ball twice in their net, but they were disallowed. If we had scored them like we should have, will they say they were better than us? I doubt it.
So our biggest issue remains our toothless attack. It’s really ironic. We went into the tournament thinking our attack was our major strength. We now know otherwise. What we have is GOOD INDIVIDUAL STRIKERS. WE DON’T HAVE A GOOD ATTACK. And for this, there is no other person to blame than the coach.
A good attack is a TEAM EFFORT. It is the coach’s job to make the team attack as a unit. Provide adequate support and service to the strikers. Ensure that goals can come from every player on the pitch. This is what Peseiro needs to work on.
And shore up the midfield – potentially a midfield combination of Ndidi and Onyeka would have been good enough for us to dominate teams like SA and Cote D’Ivoire and the others we played at AFCON but unfortunately Ndidi was injured but furthermore, how long has Ndidi got left playing at the top level? However, one thing is clear, no more Iwobi in the centre of our midfield and if he can displace anyone we currently have as a winger then good luck to him, he is open to try and do that.
All this suggests that finding new midfielders and building formidable pairs of, tough tackling, progressively mobile and intelligent midfield combinations is probably top of our list of priorities at the moment, along with as mentioned, sharpening our attack and building on what already is looking like a solid foundation at the back – these would be our list of absolute priorities currently and going forward and in that order as well. This is what I think
Shoring up the midfield is a must. No argument there.
Ideally, we need Onazi type midfielders. With 2 or 3 Onazis in the middle, we can compete against any team on the planet. Oya, let the cloning of Ogenyi Onazi begin, HAHAHAHA!
Let’s cast our nets far and wide and get the best central midfielders with Nigerian blood into the team. They are out there, waiting to be found.
True talk!
For now, we can console ourselves that Onyeka is finally coming into his own and a pairing of him and Ndidi is looking like a very good strong midfield combo indeed – long may that be and continue while we diligently seek out new blood!
Peseiro knows the importance of the qualifiers, so we’ll be good. Ever since I’ve known SA they’ve never respected SE, so it’s not new. We have good formations now – 4-2-4, 4-3-3, 3-4-3. I would have wanted him to try the 3-5-2 we used against Argentina just to have an extra midfielder. We’ll be good, I now trust the coach.
Any time south Africa is coming to play West Africa teams they talk a lot but at the end of the day they are beaten.
Very difficult for them to overcome West Africa teams, that is bitter truth.
MOSES SIMON, ONUACHU AND AHMED MUSA EVEN CHUKWUEZE should make way when the likes Boniface and Awoniyi come back then, Tella and Orban should be given a look in. After Alhasan Yusuf Shenanigans in Semi’s and Final either he or Onyedika should get cut when Ndidi comes back then we need Nwakali and Olise( NFF NEED TO PRIORITIES THIS) to replace Aribo and Iwobi in that team..these are changes that need to be made for that crucial game and going forward to WC unlessanother star player springs up
As long as Iwobi is hitting form at Fulham,he will continue to be part of the super eagles.
The reason Iwobi is struggling has to do with the change in formation.
He isn’t cut out for a 2 man midfied defensive pattern,which has led to his shambolic performances lately for the super eagles.
Iwobi will flourish in a 4.3.3 and 3.5.2 formations,respectively .
We lost in the final because we couldn’t compete against the Ivorian midfield trio of Seri,Fofana and Frank Kessie.These 3 lads where mountainous and unplayable.
A change of formation in the second half may have helped,but the manager carried on playing on the back foot unfortunately.A 3.5.2 in the second half could have slowed the rampaging Ivorians.
This is more like advice after injury.
Meanwhile,we have to add more bodies in the midfield and play the Nigeria traditional attacking football to get the best of Alex Iwobi.
It’s not the end of the journey for our maestro Alex Iwobi,we love him and his services is still needed as we look to improve post Afcon.
Peseiro need to stop playing with Tella..Musa ( I say Musa because the others even though not up to SE level anymore) and Tella play the same position by calling Musa Tella continuously misses out of the team list which may frustrate him and with him only having 35mins of football under his belt for Nigeria not even a full cap he can choose England if they come calling which is a very real possibility as he is doing well for the possible champions of Germany in a possible historical season for his club. Nigeria is supposed to take note of this.
These players will offer nothing against SA and Rohr’s Benin Republic.. Moses Simon, Paul Onuachu, Ahmed Musa, Alhasan Yusuf, Aribo, Iwobi and Samuel Chukwueze( unless he mysteriously hits miraculous form for AC Milan and regains confidence by June)
They should be replaced with the below and integrated into the team by June
BONIFACE
AWONIYI
ORBAN
TELLA
NDIDI
NWAKALI
MICHAEL OLISE
ASAP….
Ugo. Olise said he is not interested in playing for us. Can we just forget him and look for those who are ready
As long as he have not Played Senior International ball yet he is still eligiable and Nigeria must stop this inferiority complex. Of Not having confidence in going for Big talent and not the ones who cannot make it for England or France or Germany. Then we will always experience choking from these players in deep parts of big tournaments when the stakes are high like Iwobi and co proves in most scenario’s
@Ugo,all the players except Alhassan Yusuf, who in my estimation is a better player than Nwakali. When you compared their AfCON performances, Yusuf still has a better rating than Nwakali.
It’s time to move away from mediocrity and strengthen the team with bmidfielders like Dele Bashiru, Ifeanyi, Daga, and Folorunsho.
The defence also needs strengthening Adarabioyo, Osho, and Ogbu.
Now that Alhassan has woken Frank the tank from his slumber, the return of ndidi will thicken the midfield. Tella will add bite to the wings, Awo and Boni will help with goals.
Nwabali has resolved a major prob. If we get Olise, then the team will be unstoppable.
South-Africa can’t stop the SE
@Larry Kelechi Nwakali offers creativity and ball distribution his passing range and accuracy is second to non and he is a free kick specialist. Mind you Eze is still eligible for Nigeria with only 2 caps for England like Tella he is still eligible for both..
With Kelechi Nwakali or Michael Olise directing play for attackers and Ndidi and Onyeka alternating roles will give our Midfield what it was desperately lacking in the just concluded AFCON
Olise also is dynamic and can play down the flanks and drift into CAM role
If Nigeria plays the way they played at the nation’s cup. South Africa will beat us to the ticket period. You can’t be defensive when playing for a world cup ticket.
We need a coach as soon as possible that will deploy tactics that can make us to be offensive and also control the midfield. Now all countries see Nigeria as beatable because they comfortably control and dictate the pace of the game when playing against us. Your opponent won’t respect you when you play them defensively but when you attack them mercilessly they will hibernate and give you respect.This S.A team will mesmerized us take it or leave it unless we switch gear and be offensive
Gbam thank you.
@Respect is reciprocal you are very right and if we are to be honest with ourselves with Peseiro and his lack of dynamic tactics if SE like let the line up include Neymar Mbappe C. RonLdo and Zidane with Messi they will still be beating black and blue by strong opponents
yes o!
@Ugo, I think you are still using age group performance to judge him. He is just like Chukzzy when it comes to real evaluation.
On current form and performance in the last 3years, Alhassan has performed better in defensive discipline, ball distribution, winning possession, and attacking threat.
Go see Yusuf game in the Champions league against teams including Barcelona. Lets be honest, that guy is better than Nwakali, it’s not even close.
@Larry Yusuf if we had lost to South Africa the fault would have to be Yusuf. As bad as Iwobi was those who really know ball can agree that Even the option Peseiro had to improve the team if Iwobi didnt peform made the team even worse when they came on. I Mean Yusuf and Aribo made Nigeria worse when they came on and our Turn Overs even increased along with the High Blood pressure, Yusuf only meaningful performance in AFCON was against Bissau is he a flash in the pan only time will tell but he is not miles ahead of Nwakali i firmly believe SE midfield would have been stronger with Nwakali and Of course double Engine Ndidi( whose Presence alone would compensate for Yusuf and Iwobi’s calamitous performances
I still can’t believe you could come up with this Analysis and pinpoint one controversial decision to blame him. Alhassan played well and showed up in his first assignment. Besides, he outperformed Onyeka in his first game against EQG.
Overall he was next to Onyeka in the overall evaluation for midfield. Onyeka had played loads of matches before showing up at AFCON. Onyedika has gotten lots more opportunities but he’s yet to attain Yusuf’s level. Nwakali got his chances but couldnt take it and his club football is not up to Yusufs’
I believe Yusuf is a valuable component of the team moving forward.
Peseiro may have copied the Mourinho template, but he missed a big part of it.
The Mourinho template has 3 main parts:
1) A stingy defense
2) A solid midfield
3) A battering ram – an influential striker. Drogba played this role for him at Chelsea, and at other teams, players like Ibrahimovic, CR7, Dzeko, and Tammy Abraham have been used in this way.
In Mourinho teams, he builds his team around a solid midfield. ALWAYS.
You will never, ever find a Mourinho team without a strong midfield.
In his first stint at Chelsea, Mourinho had the famous MIDFIELD DIAMOND. Three buccaneering central midfielders playing behind a 20-goal-a-season AM, Frank Lampard. The central midfielders were all box-to-box, ball winning, aggressive, energetic players. Players like Essien, Ballack, Makalele, Deco, Mikel, Lassana Diara, Geremi. Deco and Ballack could also play the AM role.
Ahead of this midfield, he had his battering ram, Drogba. And behind them, he had a mean, stingy defence led by captain John Terry. And a solid goalie in Petr Cech.
At the Afcon, Peseiro had a stingy defense and a battering ram in Osimhen. He forgot to bring a solid midfield. Or rather, he chose to go to Afcon with 3 central defenders. ONLY THREE! Iwobi and Aribo are not central defenders. They’re AM/winger type players.
We had good strikers, but a poor attack.
With a weak attack and midfield, our defense was stretched to the limit. Credit to the defense and the goalie Nwabali that they kept so many clean sheets.
With a better midfield, we would have won this trophy. Yes, hindsight is 20-20. It’s easy to make recommendations after the fact. But it must be said that in that final, if we had matched CIV in the midfield, a player like Kessie would not have been as influential as he was on the day.
Even without a solid midfield, we almost won it. But with a solid midfield, this SE team is definitely harder to beat.
Going forward, Peseiro’s tasks are to make the team attack better as a unit, and ensure the midfield is adequately manned by central midfielders. A minimum of 2 per game. The defense and goalie are ok. The defense and goalie departments can be strengthened, of course. But the lads we have in there now are reliable.
Your points are valid but which of our defense or strikers lists should be reduced to accommodate the “battering rams” we direly need in the midfield that have been perpetually thin for so many years?
Should attackers list be trimmed (remember we often produce more attackers and osimhen seems to have taken out a spot) or defense list?
Sly, the answer to your question depends on the formation the coach chooses on match day.
We can do 3-5-2 or 4-3-3. Both formations include 3 central midfielders.
If Peseiro wants to stick to 2 central midfielders, that’s ok. But they both must be proper central midfielders. Imagine how Onyeka’s workload against CIV would have reduced if he had Yusuf or Onyedika alongside him.
My definition of a proper central midfielder – someone who is energetic, mobile, tackles strongly, plays and shoots well with both feet (no otu ukwu players please).
Notice I did not include dribbling. Dribbling ability is a nice extra, BUT NOT REQUIRED. Intelligence and determination are highly required!
An example comes easily to mind. OGENYI ONAZI. He was an underrated gem, and we miss him now that he is no longer active.
If we had 2 genuine central midfielders on the pitch against CIV, Kessie and co. would have had a much harder time in the middle.
Is Onazi better than Ndidi be honest to yourself?. Even Onyeka you speak of is not better than Ndidi he does well when he fills in for Ndidi but there is a reason he is below Ndidi in Pecking Order.
That is the problem with Nigerians if a player is injured it then becomes out of sight out of mind. Nawa o
I just used Onazi as an example. Ndidi is also a good player.
@Pompei Ndidi is Super Eagles Best Midfielder.
Sorry, I meant to say Peseiro went to Afcon with 3 CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS.
@Respect is reciprocal you are very right and if we are to be honest with ourselves with Peseiro and his lack of dynamic tactics if SE like let the line up include Neymar Mbappe C. RonLdo and Zidane with Messi they will still be beating black and blue by strong opponents
It’s even better for teams to have the believe the could defeat the Super Eagles. This will be to the our advantage as teams will stop playing defensive. Woth the right selection and formation of 433 or 352, very few Adrican countries can match the Eagles in open play.
At the finals, I saw a jittery Bassey and a tired Aina, Sanusi couldn’t ste-up his depreciating game, Iwobi was ineffective as usual,Pesseiro gamble on Chukwueze failed woefully and the team was left with 7 players against more than 16 players including the host nation, match officials, and VAR..
I believe the team has learnt a valuable lesson on players, formation, and planning.
By the way, just watching this guy’s at Luton.. Osho, Ross and Ogbene..
Ross Barkeley is the type of playmaker the team nees and he’s there to be taken. The nff should make the move for Ross to help the team in midfield. I believe he could still be open to play for us.
@larry has Ross not been played by England. Is he qualified to play for us
Barkley will still be able to play for us, it will just need us convincing him, he has represented England only at youth level and only for the senior team in 1 or 2 friendlies – His father is Peter Effanga from Akwa Ibom
I never really rated him before but now he seems to be playing much better at Luton which is why I brought up his name
@Larry Ross Barkely has 33 Caps for England He cannot Play for Nigeria. At all. Guys like Eze (2 caps) and Olise (0) Still eligable as the law is 3 Full Caps or 6 now if I am not mistaking and they have to be FIFA apporved competitive or Friendly caps to tie players down. @Larry players like Saka, Barkley, Alli and Abrahams are tied down to Englands cause. Even Tomori is still eligiable for Nigeria believe it or not and Destiny Udogie as well.
Oh? Okay o – I defer to you on Barkley, I didn’t really look into him that much – lol, so that means he is out then
Nigeria are never getting Michael Akpovie Olise so let’s just forget that one although he is one of the best footballers in the world right now – I think he will prefer to play for the national teams of – Algeria, England or France and in that order before he would ever consider Nigeria and all those teams want him desperately so Nigeria I’m afraid have zero chance of getting him to play for us.
Rose Barkely will more than 10-15 caps for england from his days with Everton, Chelsea.i am definitely sure he is ineligible.
Iwobi will be deadly against South Africa in World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria will win. Y’all can thank me later. Lol
MUMU lol
Hahaha, Iwobi is a good player. Of course he is.
But you have to use him properly to get the best from him.
As a winger, left or right, or as an AM? A BIG YES.
But as a central midfielder? NOOOOOO.
There’s no team in Africa that faces the super eagles and remain muted before or after the match.
Before the match they’ll first Play mind games to distract us and get Media attention….
They’ll want to lift the spirit of their players, fans and even the FA.
After the match, when they finally loose, they’ll always console and comfort themselves, players, fans that they played better football than Nigeria.
Sometimes I ask, did you come out to play better football or to win???
Who better football help when 3 points is all what we need???
The Best team always carry the day not a better team.
Oga khumalo you’re free to talk…. You’ve freedom of speech…… June is just by the corner…. The boys will surely be separated from the men.
Just hold your peace till then.
***SHALOM***