Ricardo Goss opens up on FIFA World Cup ambitions and goalkeeper battle

Broos is set to name his final 26-man Bafana squad during a national event hosted at the Union Buildings in Pretoria next Wednesday, 27 May, before their departure for Mexico, whom they face in the tournament opener on 11 June.

Goss, who has not missed a national team camp since March 2023, is not getting ahead of himself but believes he has made every effort to raise his hand alongside skipper and reigning number-one Ronwen Williams.

"I think it's every footballer's dream to represent the country, especially at the World Cup, so it's also been my dream to actually partake in the World Cup, so no pressure," said Goss.

"Obviously it's been difficult [competing for a spot] – you can see the quality of goalkeeping this season has gone up a bit.

"You can even see the number of clean sheets have increased, I don't think we've had more than 15 clean sheets per goalkeeper for three goalkeepers in one season – I'm not sure about that record.

"But, I think yeah, it's a challenge and hopefully there's a World Cup every year so the league and the standard goes a bit higher, but yeah, it's been a challenge.

"And it's an interesting one because there are quite a lot of us that have put our names in the hat, and yeah, we're just waiting for next week and see how that [final squad] looks."

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While his spot as a backup to Williams has not quite come under threat, Goss faced major challenges this season after SuperSport United was sold to Siwelele, with the club also leaving their home base at Lucas Moripe Stadium for Bloemfontein.

Despite this, the 32-year-old is delighted to have maintained his performances with a career-best 14 clean sheets in 28 matches.

"Yeah, it's been a challenging season, like you say, but for me this is my best season so far because my record was like 10 clean sheets, and now I'm on 13 or 14, if I'm not mistaken," he added.

"So yeah, I think it's been good for me, it's been good for the team as well, and look where that has put us – at some stage I think we were 16th on the log, if I'm not mistaken, and we were conceding left, right and centre.

"But i think we've just been stingy with goals – and 14 clean sheets in 29 games is amazing for a team like Siwelele."