CHAMPIONS! At an event in Monterrey the day before the Bafana Bafana vs South Korea match, SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan called it " The biggest game in Bafana Bafana ' s history ". And I was there.
I need you to sit down for this one, because I still haven ' t fully processed it myself, and I was there for every second of it.
I was part of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture ' s Lucky Fans delegation sent to watch Bafana Bafana take on South Korea at the World Cup in Mexico. The trip for the fans was fully sponsored by Betway, Cell C, Honor South Africa and Old School.
The story starts with a missed direct message to me on X / Twitter from Minister Gayton McKenzie, making me too late to join the first group of Lucky Fans for the opening game. The universe had better plans for me: The third game in Mexico where Bafana Bafana made history. The missed message is another story for another day!
The gees started before we ' d even left the country. OR Tambo, still on South African soil, and already there was singing, flag-waving, and strangers becoming family somewhere between check-in and security. By the time we landed in Paris for the layover, I ' d acquired three new best friends and lost all sense of personal space, which is basically the South African travel experience in a nutshell.
Then Mexico City. Then Monterrey. Then, somehow, standing in the same room as Minister Gayton McKenzie and SAFA President Danny Jordaan, wearing a Bafana jersey like it was formal wear, casually rubbing shoulders with actual government officials while internally screaming. Dr Jordaan had already told the room the day before that this was the biggest game in Bafana Bafana ' s history, and honestly, walking into that stadium the next day, you could feel he wasn ' t exaggerating for effect. The tension was physical. The history had weight.
The trip to the stadium was everything. Fifteen die-hard Bafana Bafana fans in a coach, dressed head to toe in South African colours. South African music blaring via Bluetooth from someone’ s phone. There were already tears on the way to the stadium.
And then the game.
You could see it from kickoff, the moment the players came out. This wasn ' t the previous two games, where we ' d been flat-footed, holding back, playing not to lose. This time Bafana played to win. And then, Champions, they did.
Thapelo Maseko ' s shot hit the net in the 63 rd minute of the game. The must-win game.
I want to be very clear about what happened to me physically in that moment. I didn’ t celebrate like a rational adult. I became fully feral. I hugged a man I had known for 11 minutes and kissed him on his forehead. I have no memory of my own vocal cords for a solid 90 seconds. Grown men, actual grown men with beards and jobs and car payments, were sobbing. The whole group of us Lucky Fans just stood there hugging, crying, singing, unable to believe we were actually there for it. As I sit here writing this, I have goosebumps and tears in my eyes.
It was a must-win. We won it. For the first time in our history, South Africa were advancing to the next round of a FIFA World Cup. As a South African fan, I need you to understand how rare that sentence is for us. We don ' t get to say " Bafana Bafana won the must-win game " very often, so I milked that moment for every last drop it had.
I was filming when the ball hit the net, which means I now own, forever, undeniable video proof that the best live sporting moment of my entire life actually happened and wasn ' t a fever dream brought on by Mexican chillies and hot sauce.
Now, about Mexico itself. It was never on my radar as a destination. Never crossed my mind. I now have it written down in an actual pen.
The food alone justifies the flights. Whatever you ' re eating at the " Mexican " spot in your local mall, Champions, I need you to know that it is a
COLUMN
distant, confused cousin of the real thing. This was a different sport entirely, and I don ' t say that lightly about food.
But the people, honestly, that ' s what got me. Warm. Patient. Endlessly forgiving of a South African who communicated primarily through enthusiastic hand gestures and the kind of hopeful smiling you do when you have no idea what ' s being said to you but you ' re pretty sure it ' s friendly. Ask for directions and you will get help, somehow, through a glorious mess of broken English, broken Spanish, and increasingly elaborate mime.
And here ' s the bit that got me quietly, right in the chest: it felt like home. Strangers greeting strangers like it ' s nothing, because in both our countries, apparently, it isn ' t. The markets in central Monterrey had that same organised chaos you get in any South African city centre street market: clothes, street food, souvenirs, and somewhere in there, thousands of knockoff jerseys being sold with complete confidence.
Full disclosure: I bought the home, away, and training Mexico kit for less than R1200 altogether! If you tell anyone, I’ ll deny it.
Different language. Different continent. Same warmth, same hustle, same total inability of mine to order a coffee correctly.
I went to Mexico to watch soccer. I came home with a second country I can ' t stop thinking about, and one video, thirty seconds long, of the moment Bafana made history, that I will show everyone I come across and especially anyone unfortunate enough to sit next to me on a flight for the rest of my life.
Thank you, Bafana Bafana. I will never, ever forget this and topping it will be very difficult.
I love you. 1-nils.( Because that was the score!)
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