Bafana World Cup qualifiers in numbers
South Africa begin another bid to qualify for the Fifa World Cup with a home clash against Benin in Durban on Saturday.
It is now 31 years since they first entered the preliminaries for the global showpiece event, and after some early success it has largely been a tale of woe.
But every new campaign brings a chance to turn that around and as we look forward to that prospect, we add up their numbers on their qualification record.
1 – The first ever World Cup qualifier for the side was away in Nigeria and proved a harrowing experience as the reality of facing the top teams on the continent hit home. The Super Eagles romped to a 4-0 victory over the shell-shocked South Africans. It remains their biggest defeat in the qualifiers.
1 – Bafana’s first goal in World Cup qualifying was scored by the late Phil Masinga against Congo in 1992, though he would net a much more famous one five years later that would seal the team’s place at the 1998 World Cup in France. Masinga did love a goal against Congo and their neighbours DR Congo in World Cup qualifying – Bafana netted six times against them during the striker’s Bafana career and he got four of those.
2 – Bafana have qualified for two World Cup finals from seven attempts in the preliminaries – 1998 and 2002. In 2010 they entered the tournament automatically as hosts.
3 – Bafana’s biggest away win in the qualifiers was a 3-0 success in the Central African Republic in 2013, when Bernard Parker, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Katlego Mashego were on target.
4 – Bafana’s biggest victory in the World Cup preliminaries is 4-1, which they have achieved twice. They beat Equatorial Guinea by that scoreline in 2008 and then dispatched Botswana in 2013.
4 – Bafana have only lost four of their 29
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