Bafana Bafana's success this year has elevated the Hugo Broos-coached team to an end-of-year firm standing on the continent.
With reflections of the year that has been underway, it is worth noting that Bafana only lost just once in open play through the 2024 calendar year.
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That defeat (2-0) came against Mali on January 16 as they got proceedings underway in their group at the AFCON finals in Cote d'Ivoire.
While the outcome of that match stood as a loss, it was wiped out by Bafana going all the way to the semi-finals, where they lost to Nigeria on penalties before finishing as third place play-off winners.
That bronze medal is the best achievement at the Nations Cup finals since the year 2000 and came on the back of the disaster of failing to merely qualify for the previous edition under Molefi Ntseki.
The success of the tournament in Cote d'Ivoire has provided the foundation towards keeping Bafana in the top 10 position, which they have ended the year occupying on the continent.
FIFA released their last rankings for the year on Thursday with no changes to their November standings for Bafana, who have 1428,87 points.
Tenth place on the continent comes via a 57th position on the FIFA rankings.
Position 57 is the best end-of-year position for Bafana since Broos took over in May 2021 and the best since February 2015.
Last year, Bafana ended the year in position 66, December 2022 had Bafana at 67, December 2021 at 68 having taken over with the team while ranked 75th.
Bafana will only be back in action next year in March when they resume their 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin.
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The best FIFA ranking for Bafana was in August 1996 when they climbed all the way to position 16 in the world just months after winning the AFCON.
Next up for Broos and Bafana is making good of their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign, which has them tied on seven points in Group C with six games to play – five of which will possibly be played in South Africa.