Bafana to host Brazil in friendly next year

Five-time world champions Brazil will play a friendly against Bafana Bafana in Johannesburg early next year.

The match is set for March 5 at Soccer City and is likely to be the last leg of the lucratively sponsored “Brasil Global Tour” which has seen the team travel across the world over the last three years as Brazil prepare to host the next year’s World Cup.

The opponents, date and venue were widely reported in Brazil’s major media outlets at the weekend. The fixture is also up on the Fifa website, but has not yet been confirmed by the South African Football Association.

It will be a symbolic match between the 2010 and 2014 World Cup hosts, although the two countries met in Sao Paulo in September last year when Gordon Igesund took over as Bafana coach.

Brazil have played Bafana three times before in South Africa. The Brazilians won the 2009 Confederation Cup and participated in the 2010 World Cup.

The first meeting was a thrilling affair at Soccer City when Brazil came from two goals down to win 3-2 in March 1996, while Romario and Bebeto scored at Ellis Park the following year when they played a warm-up friendly before flying together to Saudi Arabia for the 1997 Confederation Cup.

South Africa lost again to Brazil in the 2009 Confederation Cup semifinal, with captain Aaron Mokoena giving away a silly free kick on the edge of the penalty area in the last minute and being punished by fullback Dani Alves.

The “Brasil Global Tour” has seen the 2014 hosts spend the last three years travelling around the world for the money-spinning friendlies.

Brazil’s next matches are against Honduras in Miami, US, on November 16 and Chile in Toronto, Canada, three days later.

This year the Brazilians have played friendlies in Boston, London, Basel, Seoul and Beijing. Their last game was a 2-0 win over Zambia last Tuesday in Beijing’s fabled Birds’ Nest Stadium.

Embarrassingly, South Africa have yet to announce fixtures for the November Fifa international dates.