Praised for “Handling” Borussia Dortmund’s Guirassy as South Africa Begin AFCON Qualifying with Win Over Guinea
Rangers defender Olwethu Makhanya has been singled out by Pitso Mosimane after helping South Africa deal with one of the most dangerous strikers in Europe, with the Bafana Bafana head coach crediting the 22-year-old’s handling of Borussia Dortmund forward Serhou Guirassy as a key factor in a 2-1 win over Guinea that opened their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.
Mosimane, back in permanent charge of the national team after replacing Hugo Broos, picked out Makhanya alongside fellow defender Ime Okon and full-back Kamogelo Sebelebele for special praise following the victory at Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Saturday. “Olwethu Makhanya was very good, along with Kamogelo Sebelebele and Ime Okon,” Mosimane said. “These are guys who were a part of the World Cup, but did not play, and we have to give them a chance to show themselves.” Turning specifically to the challenge posed by Guirassy, one of the Bundesliga’s most prolific forwards, Mosimane added: “Olwethu was up against a striker from Borussia Dortmund who is full of quality and he handled him very well. So I was delighted at the win against a very good team, and we now have players coming through who will be very important to this team.”
South Africa’s victory was anything but comfortable. Guinea started the brighter of the two sides, with Aliou Balde forcing an early save from captain Ronwen Williams inside the opening ten minutes, but the hosts gradually took control and were rewarded in the 30th minute when Ime Okon reacted quickest to a loose ball from a corner that Guinea failed to clear, hammering it home from close range for his first international goal. Guinea responded when a free-kick was only half-cleared and Seydouba Cisse fired past Williams in the 69th minute to level the match, setting up a nervy final quarter of an hour in front of a lively home crowd.
The winning goal arrived through Samukelo Kabini, on for the injured-affected Aubrey Modiba, who raced clear to beat goalkeeper Soumaila Sylla at his near post in the 77th minute — his first goal for the national team, just as Okon’s had been. Guinea had one final chance to snatch a point when Guirassy found space on the edge of the box in the 88th minute, but his effort flew wide, and South Africa held on for what Mosimane described as an important start to the group.
Makhanya started at the heart of a back four alongside Okon, with Sebelebele at right-back and Modiba on the left, in a defence tasked with containing a Guinea attack built around Guirassy’s movement and the trickery of the Girona-linked winger Mosimane also referenced in his post-match comments. It marked a rare start in the heart of defence for the South African international, who had been part of the squad for the country’s World Cup campaign in the summer without featuring, and had publicly criticised previous manager Hugo Broos last week over comments dismissing the standard of Major League Soccer, the competition Makhanya played in before his move to Rangers.
The praise from Mosimane comes at the peak of an already strong run of form for the defender at club level. Makhanya has established himself as a first-team fixture at Ibrox since arriving from Philadelphia Union in the summer, featuring in both of Rangers’ recent Old Firm derby victories over Celtic — the 3-0 League Cup quarter-final win and the follow-up 1-0 league victory at Celtic Park — and has been credited by some observers as the best signing made by the club’s American ownership group, 49ers Enterprises, since their takeover. Only goalkeeper Ivor Pandur has featured for more minutes among Rangers’ summer arrivals.
Makhanya’s derby weekend brought its own moment of personal frustration: an exquisite improvised volley in the second Celtic match, 15 minutes from time, was ruled out after a VAR review adjudged he had used his hand to control the ball in the build-up. Speaking afterwards, the defender praised the spirit within Derek McInnes’s squad as central to Rangers’ back-to-back wins over their oldest rivals, which have cut Celtic’s Premiership lead to two points.
Now the same qualities that have impressed at club level — composure, positioning and a willingness to engage physically with the division’s most dangerous forwards — appear to be translating to the international stage. Mosimane has indicated Makhanya could be handed just his second full South Africa cap when Bafana Bafana travel to face Eritrea in their next Group D qualifier, a fixture with its own unusual subplot: Eritrea only returned to international football earlier this year after four years without playing a match, having been drawn into the same qualifying section as South Africa, Guinea and hosts-in-waiting Kenya.
South Africa’s win puts them at the front of Group D’s qualifying race, alongside Guinea and Eritrea, in a section where Kenya — coached by former Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy — are already guaranteed a place at the 2027 finals as co-hosts alongside Uganda and Tanzania, leaving the remaining group members to fight it out for the section’s other qualification berth. Kenya themselves were held to a 1-1 draw by Eritrea in the group’s other opening fixture, Ryan Ogam’s 87th-minute equaliser cancelling out an early Eritrean lead.
For Mosimane, freshly returned to the Bafana Bafana job, the emergence of previously fringe figures such as Makhanya, Okon and Kabini — none of whom featured for South Africa at the World Cup during the summer — represents exactly the kind of squad depth he will need over what is likely to be a long qualifying campaign. “We don’t finish the chances, and you know what’s going to happen later when you play these quality teams,” Mosimane cautioned after the match, pointing to his side’s profligacy in front of goal even in victory. “They will punish you when they get their chance.” But for one afternoon in Soweto, it was South Africa’s defence — with a Rangers regular at its centre — that did the more eye-catching work, nullifying one of the Bundesliga’s in-form strikers on the way to a winning start.
