South Africa's quest for a sixth Cosafa Cup title concluded prematurely as they were eliminated in the group stages on Tuesday.
Despite high hopes, the South African national team managed only a single win in three matches, against Mozambique, Botswana, and Eswatini in Group A, ultimately finishing in second place but failing to advance.
The team's performance was characterized by two draws: the opening match against Mozambique and a subsequent game against Botswana, before securing a victory against Eswatini. Despite accumulating five points, the same as Mozambique, Bafana Bafana's inferior goal difference saw them miss out on a semi-final berth, a position that would have been secured with a best second-place finish.
Stand-in coach Helman Mkhalele pointed to the hastily assembled squad and inadequate preparation time as significant factors affecting the team's failure.
“Inconsistency, I can also attribute it to the fact that these players, they came together on Sunday and started training coming from pre-season or a month layoff which they started training three days before the game,” Mkhalele told Cosafa media post-match.
The lack of fitness was evident, particularly in the first half against Eswatini, where Bafana struggled to match the pace of their opponents.
“So, sometimes you find that the mind wants but the body can’t so those are some of the things that I think contributed because you could see with the attitude in some games especially in this game.
“In the first half, we couldn’t cope with their pace that shows that in terms of fitness we were not really up to the level that they were. We couldn’t cope with them. But later in the second half than we started to regain that composure or increase the intensity especially when we introduced the new players."
The tournament also served as a platform for introducing new faces to the national team setup, including Ashley Cupido, Rushwin Dortley, Devon Titus, Thabang Sibanonyi, and Mfundo Thikazi. The exposure and international experience gained are invaluable for these players, who now better understand the expectations and pressures of international football.
“This competition goes a long way in terms of giving players the exposure and international experience and definitely these boys and whoever might get an opportunity to play for the national team going forward, they would’ve gained more experience. Now they know what’s expected at this level and also the pressure, how to handle the pressure. You can see the disappointment in their faces.
“It’s something that they didn’t want to experience, but I feel they have learnt a lot and for me as a person it also gave me an opportunity to look out for the players we might need for the upcoming qualifiers,” added the coach.
Despite the setback, Mkhalele sees the experience as beneficial for scouting players for upcoming Fifa World Cup qualifiers. Bafana Bafana have not won the Cosafa Cup since 2021 and were runners-up to Zambia in last year’s edition held in Durban.