Bafana Bafana are tipped to be stronger for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and 2026 World Cup qualifiers after Orlando Pirates qualified for the CAF Champions League group stage for the first time in five years.
After winning the bronze medal at this year's AFCON, largely with Mamelodi Sundowns players, Bafana had a scare and a slow start in the 2025 continental tournament qualifiers after a draw against Uganda was followed by a narrow win over South Sudan.
This coincided with early-season struggles by The Brazilians.
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Just like in their AFCON qualifiers group, where South Africa are joint-top with The Cranes, Hugo Broos' men are also equal on points with leaders Rwanda in the World Cup qualifying section.
Following Bucs' qualification for the Champions League group stage for the first time in five seasons after a 3-0 aggregate win over Jwaneng Galaxy in the second preliminary round, opposition coach Morena Ramoreboli believes this will strengthen the national team.
"Pirates being part of the group stages will also help Bafana Bafana because, for me, the contribution of Mamelodi Sundowns, with the experience they gained on the continent, has helped Bafana Bafana," Ramoreboli said at a post-match press conference at Orlando Stadium.
"And I think Pirates, as one of the teams that always produces players for Bafana, it will be very important for them to go and compete at that stage. Because the good thing about Pirates is that they have about 60 percent of young players, which for me I'd say will help the country."
For his part, Jose Riveiro credited the experience gained by his players in the national team for improved performance at club level.
"We have [an] interesting group there [at Bafana], a group of young and talented players, a bunch of winners. They want to continue improving and winning and again having the opportunity to play in these types of tournaments, African Champions League, is an interesting tournament against quality opponents," Riveiro said at the same press conference.
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"Every pinch of experience will count and our players [having played] at the AFCON seven, eight months ago, it's something that we can always capitalize on as a club and as a group.
"The talent is there, the quality is there. We only need to keep going, accumulate the experience together and the future will be fine," he added.