South Africa captain Ronwen Williams says Bafana Bafana have learned a valuable lesson from their FIFA World Cup opener and are determined to bounce back despite suffering a 2-0 defeat to Mexico.
South Africa’s return to the World Cup stage after a lengthy absence began with a disappointing loss to the hosts, but Williams believes the experience has given the squad a clearer understanding of the level required to compete against the world’s best teams.
“If you make mistakes, they will punish you. They will hurt you at this level,” Williams said.
Mexico capitalized on South Africa’s errors to take control of the match, with Bafana Bafana ultimately finishing with nine men after two red cards.
Julian Quinones scored the tournament’s first goal in the ninth minute, firing a low shot through the legs of Ronwen Williams after Bafana Bafana lost possession in their own half.
It was a costly mistake by South Africa, with Ronwen choosing to pass to midfielder Yaya Sithole who was caught in possession.
Despite the setback, Williams was encouraged by the fighting spirit shown by his teammates throughout the contest.
“I think the most important thing is that now we know what we’re up against, because we’re not used to this. We haven’t been part of the World Cup for a very long time,” he added.
The goalkeeper pointed to the team’s resilience after going behind, insisting there were positives to take from the performance despite the result.
“We went down, but we kept fighting. We didn’t give them anything towards the end. We had a few decent chances as well.”
South Africa will now turn their attention to their next Group A fixture knowing that another defeat could severely damage their hopes of reaching the knockout stages.
Williams remains confident that the experience gained from facing Mexico will help the team improve as the tournament progresses.
“We’ll keep fighting, we’ll keep going as a team, and we’ll be better,” he said.
South Africa now sit bottom of group A after South Korea beat Czech Republic 2-1 in the other match.
Bafana Bafana face Czech Republic in their second group game next week on Thursday.
Upcoming fixtures
Friday, June 12
•Canada Vs Bosnia – 10pm
Saturday, June 13
•USA vs Paraguay – 4am
•Qatar Vs Switzerland – 10pm
Sunday, June 14
•Brazil Vs Morocco – 1am
•Haiti Vs Scotland – 4am
•Australia Vs Turkey – 7am
•Germany Vs Curacao – 8pm
•Netherlands Vs Japan – 11pm
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