The relevance of the 2025 calendar year is that it presents Hugo Broos with the task of completing his biggest assignment for Bafana Bafana as head coach.
Qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is what is at stake for Broos this year with six matches to play.
An automatic ticket to the expanded tournament in USA, Mexico, and Canada will be secured by virtue of Bafana finishing top of Group C of their qualification group.
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Bafana will not need look over their shoulders with wins against Lesotho, Benin, Lesotho again, Nigeria at home, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda this year.
Second place in the group will come with hoping Bafana finish amongst the four best runners-up and then starting a lengthy qualification process via play-offs, which start on the continent and then ultimately involve other confederations.
So, the best for South Africa is to finish top of their group.
They will have to take advantage of the fact that Nigeria – the biggest threat in the group – have started badly and sit four points behind heading into the halfway mark this week.
Winning the next two games in the group, against Lesotho and Benin, will keep Broos where he needs his team to be before the last two rounds of qualifiers in September and October.
Bafana last went to the World Cup via qualifiers in 2002.
Qualification for the World Cup will also give the team the benefit of breaking back into the top 50 on the FIFA rankings.
Bafana have not been in that higher end bracket on the global rankings since October 2011.
Hugo Broos' men are now 57th, which is Bafana's best ranking since being in position 55 in March 2015.
The Belgian took over from Molefi Ntseki with the team in shambles and ranked 75th.
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Mzansi will end the year at the AFCON finals in Morocco from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, where they will have Angola, Egypt, and Zimbabwe in their group.
The senior national team are through to their 12th appearance at the biennial competition, doing so after an impressive bronze medal finish at the previous tournament held in Cote d'Ivoire.