South Africa's Bafana Bafana soiled COSAFA nations’ good run at the ongoing AFCON tournament by being the only southern Africa side to have failed to collect a point in the first round of the group stages.
Botswana's neighbours to the south kick-started their AFCON campaign against a marauding Mali on Tuesday and went down 2-0 in a game they could easily have lost with a bigger margin. Mali's win saw the West Africans go top of Group E ahead of their next match against Tunisia. Meanwhile, South Africa's loss relegated them to the bottom spot of the group standings before they take on Namibia on Sunday. The Brave Warriors (Namibia) took off to a brilliant start in the tournament when they stunned Tunisia 1-0 to secure their first win on their fourth AFCON appearance.
The Warriors' historic victory puts them at second position in Group E. When the two southern African sides meet on Sunday, Namibia will be looking to further stamp its authority, while a win for South Africa would rekindle their hope to remain in the tournament a little longer. So far, Namibia is the only COSAFA side to have collected maximum points, while The Mambas of Mozambique, Angola and Zambia's ‘Chipolopolo’ drew their opening games against favourites Egypt, Algeria and Democratic Republic of Congo respectively.
