The Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) draw this week has rightly been met with positive energy from South Africans; such has been the progress made by Bafana Bafana in recent years.

Such occasions used to fill the nation with trepidation, as we feared we would be in a “group of death” where humiliation awaited our national side. But Hugo Broos has instilled a new winning culture into the side which made us relax after we were drawn against record champions Egypt, Angola and Zimbabwe in Group B.

We have every reason to be optimistic and trust our Bafana after they qualified for Afcon, set for December in Morocco, as one of the few unbeaten teams across 12 groups.

Bafana were also among the highest scorers, falling behind only Morocco and Algeria in terms of goals scored, and beat every one of their opponents in the qualifying group.

Their solid performance was further evidence that their bronze medal at the last continental finals in Ivory Coast last year was fully merited, despite claims that they rode their luck.

Having performed so well in the finals and qualifying, we now trust that Bafana will continue feeding humble pie to sceptics.

This is a huge year for the national side, with 2026 World Cup qualifiers resuming in March. We have the belief that Broos can become the first coach since Carlos Queiroz in 2002 to lead the country to the World Cup, set for America next year.

The Belgian has a strong base to mount a serious challenge for both the Nations Cup and a World Cup spot. He has rewarded good form throughout his tenure, and now he has a larger pool to choose from, with the likes of Orlando Pirates starlets Relebohile Mofokeng and Mohau Nkota showing good form.

Egypt are obviously Bafana’s greatest threat in their Afcon group, but we should not underestimate our own team, who stunned the Pharaohs in the Round of 16 in 2019. Then, we didn’t have a team as strong as now, and almost every pundit had expected Mo Salah’s team to overwhelm us.

Bafana have been underdogs, too, in some big games they’ve played in the last year, notably the Round of 16 against Morocco last year in Ivory Coast. But somehow, against the odds, they prevailed.

It is for this reason that they will travel to the Nations Cup as a marked team – and definitely not as no-hopers or perennial underdogs. For this turnaround, we will forever be indebted to Broos, and we have reason to expect even better over the coming months.