In their first outing since their Africa Cup of Nations third-place finish, Bafana Bafana drew 1-1 with Andorra in a Fifa Series international friendly in Algiers on Thursday evening.
Bafana coach Hugo Broos stuck to his word and fielded a lineup with a number of changes to the side that was entrusted at Afcon earlier this year.
The coach said after the match he would have loved to see more goals scored by his team, but was still happy with the performance of his players.
The European side were the first to get on the stadium scoreboard after Ricardo Fernandez put the ball in the back of the net, beating goalkeeper Ricardo Goss after he fumbled the ball in the box in the sixth minute.
Bafana hit back
The South Africans fought their way back and equalised through Elias Mokwana in the 25th minute.
Bafana created a number of chances after that, but did not again have the beating of Andorra keeper Antoni Gomes.
According to Fifa, this pilot series will allow nations to play against teams they would not normally play, and give an opportunity to smaller countries to mix it up with bigger teams.
Andorra are ranked 164th in the world, 106 places below Bafana, who have achieved their highest ranking in over a decade thanks to their impressive performance at the recently completed Afcon.
Bafana’s Afcon exploits also sees them back in the top 10 on the African continent.
Despite the wide gap between the two teams, Broos wanted a professional performance from his side as they looked to climb further up the rankings.
“It’s important that we go on from what we achieved in the Afcon, it’s not enough to be in third place and become 10th in the Caf rankings for two to three months only and then we are back in number 13,” Broos said in a press conference earlier this week.
IOL Sport