Bafana Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane says he has lost too many matches he was expected to win to take the Harambee Stars lightly ahead of their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) Group D qualifier match this Friday.
The South African mentor believes Kenya’s place at the 2027 Afcon finals, already assured as co-hosts, makes Benni McCarthy’s side a dangerous opponent in their two qualifiers.
The Harambee Stars face Bafana Bafana at Orlando Amstel Arena in Soweto before hosting the return fixture at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Tuesday, November 17. Both matches kick off at 7pm Kenyan time.
Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane.
Photo credit: Siphiwe Sibeko | Reuters
Bafana lead the group with six points after beating Guinea 2-1 and Eritrea 5-0. Kenya have one point from a 1-1 draw with Eritrea at Nyayo and a 1-0 defeat by Guinea in Conakry.
With their place at the finals secure, the two matches give Harambee Stars a chance to measure themselves against the group leaders.
On Monday, shortly after his charges regrouped for camp in Johannesburg, Mosimane warned that a side under pressure can be particularly awkward to play against.
“If a player or a coach’s future depends on a game, you’ve got to be very, very careful of that because sometimes the players play for him and you can get the biggest surprise you can ever have,” he said.
Mosimane also pointed to McCarthy’s record on both sides of the touchline. The former Bafana striker won the Uefa Champions League with Porto and went on to serve on Manchester United’s coaching staff, where he worked with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Harambee Stars players and members of the technical bench at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on November 1-, 2026 ahead of their departure to South Africa for their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations Group D qualifier match against Bafana Bafana.
Photo credit: Pool
“You’ve got to also respect that Benni is a good coach. Benni was coach at Manchester United, a dream that any coach in South Africa wished to have. He coached [Cristiano] Ronaldo, excuse me,” said Mosimane.
“You’ve got to respect the level at which he has coached, and you’ve got to respect the level at which he has played.”
The former Mamelodi Sundowns coach also drew attention to Kenya’s Europe-based players. Job Ochieng and Amos Wanjala are both in McCarthy’s final squad for the two fixtures. Mosimane cited Cape Verde’s qualification for their first Fifa World Cup as a reminder of how easily a team’s reputation can lag behind its results.
“I don’t live in the space of complacency because I’ve lost many, many games to teams that in my career were bottom of the log or so-called minnows, or no one ever saw them coming,” he said. “So, you’ve got to respect it.”
This came as a 24-man Harambee Stars team left for South Africa yesterday morning ahead of the encounter.
Guinea are second in the group with three points. Kenya will co-host alongside Uganda and Tanzania. McCarthy named his final last Friday for the two-leg assignment.
