WATCH: Mbokazi spurns late chance but helps keep another Fire clean sheet

2026-03-08 - 06:43

Bafana Bafana defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi saw a chance to win the match saved with the last kick of the game for Chicago Fire in their Major League Soccer clash with Columbus Crew on Saturday. Mbokazi so close With the scores tied at 0-0, Mbokazi started a move from inside his own half and surged forward, as Fire looked to grab a last-gasp winner at the Scotts Miracle-Gro Field. The former Orlando Pirates captain had only Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte to beat, but his shot was too close to the man between the posts, who made the save. Imagine if Mbokazi scored this Winner pic.twitter.com/yxJnSlfVaE – Leonardo_Moeti (@LeonardoMoeti) March 8, 2026 Still, this was a second clean sheet in a row for the 20 year-old Mbokazi and his new MLS side. Mbokazi’s performance earned him a rating of 7.5/10 of the website sofascore.com, bettered in his team only by Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady. The talented centre back is clearly set to be a key member of the first team for Greg Berhalter’s side this season. According to an article written by Paul Tenorio for the Athletic, Mbokazi’s signing for Fire made significant waves on social media. “In the first 48 hours after the deal was announced on Dec. 2, 2025, Chicago saw an increase of 180,000 followers across its social media accounts. In the same week the World Cup draw was held in Washington, D.C., and Messi took on Thomas Müller in MLS Cup, it was the Fire that led the league in social media engagement,” wrote Tenorio. ‘Somewhat surprising’ “When we were evaluating the player (Mbokazi) and you hear about the player’s background, how excited people in South Africa are about him, talking about the generational talent, you start to get an understanding of it,” said Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter, according to the same article. “But to fully understand the impact and the popularity was difficult. To see that in just a flurry of engagement on the internet was somewhat surprising.”