Mandla Mashimbyi hopes Bafana Bafana can inspire Proteas Women

Bafana kick-off the 2026 FIFA World Cup against co-hosts Mexico this evening, and Mashimbyi says a positive result there and one for them in two days time will be important for the country. 

The Proteas Women will be aiming to finally get the monkey off their backs and win this title, having lost the last two finals of the competition.

"If Bafana Bafana can get a win today and we can follow that up with a win on Saturday that'll be good for our country. I think if they do get a win today that will give us a big boost. Leaving a legacy is the main thing for us, making sure that we inspire the nation in any way we can."

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He believes the underdog tag might just work in Bafana’s favour, with the world not giving them a chance to progress further than the group stage. According to Mashimbyi South Africa should be able to at least take a point from the match.

"I think we're sitting in the same boat because nobody is really giving Bafana Bafana a chance to cause an upset or to actually get through the group stage, but I think we bring a different type of football and that's something that other teams are not accustomed to. I'm giving us a 1-0 win, worst case scenario a draw."

Coming back to his first opponents at the weekend, Mashimbyi says it’s a good thing for him to not have played Australia in a competitive match before, and goes into the game with no past demons haunting him.

Having played a few warm-up matches since arriving in the UK more than two weeks ago, Mashimbyi admitted that they haven’t quite decided on their line-up just yet. He says they will determine that once they get a feel of the conditions and the pitch in Manchester.