Panama brings form to Bafana clashes

South Africa head into two friendly matches against Panama over the next week with a strong record against teams from Central America but are up against a side in form.

The matches in Durban on Friday and Cape Town on Tuesday are preparation for both countries for the World Cup later this year.

Panama were unbeaten in their World Cup qualifiers, winning seven and drawing three of their 10 matches, scoring 19 goals and conceding five. They finished top of their third-round qualifying group, which also included Suriname, Guatemala and El Salvador.

They are in Group L at the World Cup finals and will take on England, Croatia and Ghana in a tough pool, likely targeting the game against the latter as the win they might need to advance to the round of 32.

Panama are ranked number 33 in the world, which is actually down three places from their previous position. Last year they reached as high as 29. Bafana are languishing in 60th place.

Panama had been on a 13-game unbeaten run until a 1-0 home loss to Mexico in January, though both sides fielded depleted squads given the scheduling of the fixture, so it is hard to know what conclusions to draw from the result.

Their run started after a 2-1 defeat to Mexico in the CONCACAF Nations League final in March last year, after which they won eight and drew five of their next 13 games.

That run did include a penalty shoot-out defeat to Honduras in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals.

They are a team with goals in them. They scored in all but one of those 13 fixtures, a 0-0 draw with Suriname in World Cup qualifying. They found the net 26 times in all, an average of almost two per game. They conceded only nine times.

They kept four clean sheets in a row away from home during that run, which suggests they set up defensively and look for counter-attacks, a tactic that seems to have worked for them.

Bafana have met Panama once before, a 1-1 draw at the 2005 Gold Cup when Lungisani Ndlela scored, but the Central Americans won the penalty shoot-out that followed.

In 10 previous games against teams from Central America, South Africa have only lost twice, both times to Mexico.

The first was a harrowing 4-0 defeat in a friendly in Los Angeles in October 1993, the first time Bafana met a team from outside the African continent.

They also lost 4-2 at the Nike Cup, held in the United States, with Benni McCarthy and Thabo Mngomeni on target.

Since then, Bafana stunned Mexico 2-1 at the Gold Cup 21 years ago, and then famously played to a 1-1 draw in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup at Soccer City.

Bafana have met Costa Rica twice and won on both occasions, claiming a 2-1 friendly success in 2003 as Siyabonga Nomvete and Patrick Mayo netted.

They met again in a friendly in 2015 and this time Andile Jali was on target in a 1-0 win away from home.

On that same tour, Bafana played to a 1-1 friendly draw with Honduras as Erick Mathoho got an early goal, but Bafana could not hold on.

Bafana played to a 1-1 draw with Guatemala at the 2005 Gold Cup, with Siyabonga Nkosi getting the goal, before a 5-0 friendly win in 2010 in the build-up to the World Cup that has since been tainted by match-fixing allegations.

Katlego Mphela scored two penalties, with Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Surprise Moriri and Bernard Parker getting the other goals.