The pain of failing to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup play-offs still vibrates through Siyanda Xulu's heart with every breath that he makes over a year since the controversial defeat in Ghana.
With that in mind, Xulu believes the best way to erase that misery is to qualify for the next edition of the AFCON finals in Ivory Coast early next year.
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To do that, Bafana needs to win at home against Liberia and then avoid defeat in Monrovia on Tuesday.
"I think the drive comes from the disappointments that we have had over the (failure) World Cup qualification with 80% of the squad still here," responds Xulu when asked by KickOff.com about the desire to make this qualification campaign a success.
"I think we owe it to the country for us to qualify for the AFCON.
"We know that it is going to be important for us to win (against Liberia on Friday) and score as many goals as we can because of past experiences.
"The coach mentioned earlier that if we had managed to score more goals against Zimbabwe, we could have been talking about a different story now.
"So, those are the experiences that we needed as a team and will help us going forward.
'I think we are confident enough now to think we are ready.
"Looking at the kind of quality that we have on the other side of the pitch it gives us all the hope that we need," says Xulu, who for all his experience has never played at the AFCON finals.
At the opposite end, this evening in the Liberian attack will be a familiar face for Xulu in Terrence Tisdall who also plays in Azerbaijan for Sumgayit FK.
Xulu is with Turan Tovuz IK.
"It will help me because I know him and know how he plays having played against him about a month ago.
"He is a very good player, and it gives me an understanding of how Liberians play, and I will share it with my teammates," says Xulu.
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