Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has revealed one major factor in Bafana Bafana’s impressive showing at the 2023 AFCON that earned them a bronze medal.
Bafana returned with three accolades to their name in the form of the Fair Play award, a bronze medal and Williams' Golden Glove, but could go no further than the semi-final following a 4-2 defeat to Nigeria.
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South Africa returned with a record of four wins from seven matches played during their time in Ivory Coast and also boasted the highest winning margin in a single match thanks to a 4-0 hammering of Namibia in their second group stage match.
On a personal level, the 32-year-old also put in a record-setting display in a penalty shootout against Cape Verde in the quarter-final in which he saved four penalties – the highest amount a goalkeeper has stopped in a single shout in the history of the competition.
"I feel extremely proud," Williams told SABC Sport.
"I’m just happy that we can inspire, we can unite our country and our people. This is amazing and this small opportunity we get as footballers to unite our country. We took that and we are happy, we are proud and thank you so much for the support. We saw each and every message.
"Even though you guys were far, we felt the love, we felt the support. Let’s keep it like this. Let’s keep going and keep growing from strength to strength.
"The brotherhood we have in this team, the spirit we have among each other is just amazing and I think that is one of the reasons we were so successful in this tournament," he added.
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"We were together, we were united, like we say in South Africa, Ubuntu, that’s exactly what we had, Ubuntu, the togetherness and that led us when things were tough. Just to stick together, grind it out and just get ourselves over the line.
"For me, it’s just amazing to be a part of this special group, They make my job that much easier as the captain."
Bafana will return to action when they take on Andorra in an international friendly to be played in March.
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