Shakes Mashaba says it would be suicidal for Bafana Bafana to bank on the past good results the national team has enjoyed against the likes of Ivory Coast and Morocco.
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South Africa are in Group D at the Africa Cup of Nations taking place in June, and they have Morocco, Ivory Coast and Namibia as opponents.
Bafana have played Morocco five times and Ivory Coast six times, and they have never tasted defeat against either country. They have faced neighbours Namibia eight times and lost only once in what was their first ever meeting at the 1998 COSAFA Cup.
But Mashaba, who never lost to Morocco nor Ivory Coast during his tenure as Bafana Bafana coach, says things have changed in football from his days with the team.
"We need to do the right things and then we will see what happens," Mashaba tells snl24.com/kickoff.
"It will be a good thing if we go into the next round for the country. You know football it's got no favourites because everybody, they have participated to be where they are. It's not by favour or anything you know.
"Well unfortunately then and now and tomorrow is not the same. I mean, people make progress in life. Things change as time goes on in life. Most unfortunately I don't think there's much we can avoid. All the teams there go prepared.
"This thing of saying complacency and all that to me doesn't work because everybody that is at this level they know what they want to achieve. That's the whole thing that makes it different from my days."
Mashaba warns that the team must never repeat the mistake of thinking the qualifiers are the same as the actual tournament.
"This is the problem that we used to encounter. Like I say, yesterday and today football is not the same."