{"id":94481,"date":"2025-12-19T18:20:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bafana-bafana-face-angola-in-afcon-opener-on-monday"},"modified":"2025-12-19T19:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T19:16:50","slug":"bafana-bafana-face-angola-in-afcon-opener-on-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/bafana-bafana-face-angola-in-afcon-opener-on-monday","title":{"rendered":"Bafana Bafana face Angola in AFCON opener on Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>With the local leagues on Christmas break, all focus shifts to the highly anticipated Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).<\/p>\n<p>The tournament kicks off on Sunday, 21 December, between the host nation, Morocco and Comoros at 9 pm.<\/p>\n<p>With no clear favourites, the competition is wide open, says sports editor Bareng-Batho Kortjaas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt does not matter if you are Egypt, you have won it seven times and are looking for your eighth, or whether you are Cameroon, who have won it five times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>South Africa will be in action on Monday, and despite the behind-the-scenes drama, the team is looking strong.<\/p>\n<p><b>RELATED: Bafana coach Hugo Broos slams \u2018unprofessional\u2019 Mbekezeli Mbokazi for missed AFCON flight<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Kortjaas praises the progress made by coach Hugo Broos, who took over in 2021, and Bafana Bafana\u2019s ability to adapt and incorporate players from several clubs.<\/p>\n<p>It will be important for the team to get the six points from their first two games against Angola and Egypt to set the tone for the rest of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have qualified for the AFCON at the top of our group for the first time in donkeys years, which is the very same thing we did for the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be sad if this body of work in the four years that he has put in has not rewarded it with an AFCON.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>South Africa vs Angola kicks off on Monday (22 December) at 7 pm.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. With the local leagues on Christmas break, all focus shifts to the highly anticipated Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The tournament kicks off on Sunday, 21 December, between the host nation, Morocco and Comoros at 9 pm. With no clear favourites, the competition is wide open, says sports editor Bareng-Batho Kortjaas. \u201cIt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-94481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bafana Bafana face Angola in AFCON opener on Monday - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the local leagues on Christmas break, all focus shifts to the highly anticipated Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). 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