South Africa’s path to the next Africa Cup of Nations finals will go through their leading goalscorer as Bafana Bafana were on Tuesday paired with Benni McCarthy’s Kenya in their qualifying group.
They will also play in Group D against Guinea and Eritrea, who saw seven of their footballers disappear following their victory in Eswatini in March that secured them a spot in the group-stage qualifiers. They are presumed to have sought political asylum.
Kenya is one of the three co-hosts for the 2027 Cup of Nations, which will be played between June 19-July 17 next year, but as with Tanzania and Uganda, will also be participating in the preliminaries.
That means that Kenya is automatically qualified and there will be only one other slot available in Group D for the highest-ranked team besides Kenya.
Nine of the 12 groups see the top two finishers advance to the finals, but in the groups where Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania are playing, there is only one place available. That will complicate matters for South Africa, who will likely battle Guinea for a place at the finals.
Guinea beat South Africa 2-0 at the 2006 Cup of Nations finals in Egypt and also 1-0 in a friendly in Atteridgeville in 2008. The only other meeting between the two countries was a friendly in neutral Belgium in 2022, which ended goalless.
South Africa has never played against Eritrea previously but is unbeaten in four past games against the Harambee Stars.
Bafana won 1-0 in the Four Nations Cup in 1996 and drew 1-1 in the Castle Cup in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2002. In 2011, South Africa beat Kenya in a friendly at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace, and the next year won 2-1 in Nairobi, courtesy of a second-half own goal in another friendly international.
The draw:
Group A: Lesotho, Niger, Gabon, Morocco
Group B: South Sudan, Malawi, Angola, Egypt
Group C: Somalia, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast
Group D: Eritrea, Kenya, Guinea, South Africa
Group E: Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo
Group F: Central African Republic, Mauritania, Benin, Burkina Faso
Group G: Congo, Namibia, Comoros, Cameroon
Group H: Botswana, Libya, Uganda, Tunisia
Group I: Burundi, Togo, Zambia, Algeria
Group J: Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique, Senegal
Group K: Liberia, Rwanda, Cape Verde, Mali
Group L: Guinea Bissau, Tanzania, Madagascar, Nigeria
The top two teams in each group qualify for the finals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19-July 17 next year, expect for Groups D, H and L where the highest ranked side besides the three co-hosts will go the 24-team finals.
The qualifiers will be played over three match windows from September 21-October 6 and November 9-17 this year and then March 22-30 next year. Two qualifying matches per team will be played in each window.