Letsholonyane backs Bafana to cause upset against Mexico

Former Bafana Bafana star Reneilwe Letsholonyane Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix Bafana Bafana will take on co-hosts Mexico in a FIFA World Cup group opening game at the Estadio Banorte in Mexico City on Thursday in what is the repeat of the 2010 opener in South Africa. On that memorable day, South Africa held the Mexicans to a 1-1 draw.Mexico’s captain Rafael Márquez cancelled Siphiwe Tshabalala’s stunning opening goal of the tournament with a late equaliser in the 79th minute. That equaliser left not only the Bafana players and the technical team disappointed, but millions of South Africans, who were hoping that their team will open the tournament with a victory, were also left disappointed.

Reneilwe “Yeye” Letsholonyane, who was in Carlos Alberto Parreira’s starting line-up in that game, still has adverse memories of that day. “I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I remember the excitement that we, the players, our families and friends had leading up to the tournament,” recalls Letsholonyane.

“The experience on the day of the match was nerve-wracking if I can use that word. We were also excited to come up against Mexico. We knew that it was going to be a challenging game for us, I mean, at that time Mexico had some big name players in their squad.

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Players who were playing in some of the big leagues in the world. We knew that the task was huge.“But going to the stadium and seeing the huge support that we had at FNB Stadium, and also knowing that millions of South Africans are watching us at home, we knew that we had to do our best to make sure that we don’t disappoint them,” continued the former Kaizer Chiefs star. After registering a shocking win against one of the tournament favourites France, Bafana eventually missed out on reaching the knockout round of the tournament.

They missed out to Paraguay on goal difference. Letsholonyane described the mood in the dressing room at the Cape Town Stadium as “sombre. “We were really disappointed.

We so much wanted to qualify for the knockout stages for many reasons. One of those reasons was because we were the hosting country and two, we felt the support from the South Africans and we didn’t want to disappoint them. We were disappointed that we let down so many people who supported us.” Bafana will once again open their group campaign with a clash against Mexico, but this time around, the South Americans are hosts.

Letsholonyane believes that South Africa will do what they failed to do in 2010 and that is beat Mexico. “This game feels like a second leg of our match against them, but ours took place 16 years ago. It’s the same scenario, but this time we’re facing them away.

I have that feeling that we will cause an upset. We have that capability. I mean we came out of a very difficult situation in the qualifiers where we were not given a chance, but we topped our group and qualified. So, I fancy our chances of not only beating Mexico, but of also qualifying for the next round,” concluded Letsholonyane.

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