Throwback to Hlompho Kekana’s moment of magic, which took South African football to new heights.
Bafana Bafana have scored many great, iconic goals down the years, with possibly the most replayed one being Siphiwe Tshabalala’s strike against Mexico that opened the 2010 World Cup at Soccer City.
There are goals that will live long in our memory, and some have even won awards, like Thabo Mngomeni’s overhead kick against Congo in 2001 that was named by the Confederation of African Football as Goal of the Year.
But few goals can match the ambition and audacity of Hlompho Kekana’s long-range strike against Cameroon in a 2–2 draw during an African Cup of Nations qualifier in Yaoundé in 2016.
Kekana made a career out of scoring eye-catching goals and some of the best in the Premier Soccer League history have come from the boot of the former Bloemfontein Celtic and Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder.
But probably his most famous – and best – goal came when he won the ball up well inside his own half against the Indomitable Lions, took a few strides forward and before crossing the halfway line, unleashed a powerful shot that sailed over goalkeeper Guy N’dy Assembé.
The latter had come a little bit off his line, but not all that much, and was beaten by the pace in the shot and the late dip in the end.
The quality in this shot was not just the execution, but the fact that Kekana had the vision, and courage, to take it on.
It was simply brilliant and up there with the best ever Bafana goals. It was, in fact, so good that it was nominated for the Puskás Award by FIFA in 2016, though did not win.
“It started at training at my club some four months back,” Kekana said at the time.
“I always check how the goalkeepers leave their lines when the opposition is attacking … after we dispossessed Cameroon, I looked up and saw the keeper well off his line and I took a chance – thankfully, it went in.
“I was excited because I have been trying to score such goals at my club but could not. At training, I would hit more than 10 balls with none going in and it was frustrating.
“But when the goal comes in a match against a team the calibre of Cameroon, it always brings joy – and not only to me but to my teammates and the entire country, which shows just how much the goals means to everyone, not just to me.”
There is some irony too that the man in the Cameroon dugout was Hugo Broos, now the mentor of Bafana Bafana.
Broos would, of course, go on to lead the Indomitable Lions to the 2017 Cup of Nations crown with an highly unlikely victory in the final over Egypt.
A year later and Kekana was at it again with another goal from inside his own half, though perhaps Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Wayne Sandilands was culpable with this one.
N’dy Assembé had no chance with his, but Sandilands actually got back to his line and got his hands on the ball, but he could not keep the shot out when he probably should have.
But still, applaud the vision and quality in the shot to find the pace and the accuracy to test the keeper from his own half! His Cameroon goal was not Kekana’s only Puskás Award nominee.
He unleashed a thunderbolt that left Cape Town City keeper Peter Leeuwenburgh rooted to the spot in 2020 as he could only watch it crash into the inside of his right-hand post.
