Los Angeles, June 29 (IANS) South Africa coach Hugo Broos said that though he was disappointed by his team’s World Cup round-of-32 exit, his side takes great pride in reaching the FIFA World Cup knockouts for the first time.

South Africa’s exit from the FIFA World Cup 2026 came in cruel circumstances after Stephen Eustaquio secured a last-gasp victory for Canada in their Round of 32 clash at Los Angeles Stadium.

After the team recovered from an opening defeat to Mexico to draw with Czechia and then defeat Korea to reach the knockout stages of the global showpiece for the first time, they are leaving with their heads held high.

“It was a difficult game but I knew beforehand [it would be so] because I analysed the opponent. They have two important [traits] in power and speed. We hoped we had an answer for that but it was not always the fact,” Broos told FIFA.

“You saw situations in the game that we could not follow and the duels, man against man, we lost sometimes or most of the time. We have to work on power and speed in South Africa.

“I don’t have complaints about the mentality but I think we can look back on this tournament with happiness because we got to the second round. I don’t think anybody expected that before the tournament,” he added.

South Africa’s performances at the World Cup were even more impressive as it was their first global finals since 2010.

“It is sore now because we wanted to win today. It’s a disappointment; it’s very quiet in the dressing room at the moment. But on the other side we have to be honest, we did very well for our first time in the World Cup after 26 years. We achieved the second round,” Broos said.

Broos, at the age of 74 years and 79 days, became the oldest coach in knockout-phase history. H said he will look back on the tournament with real fondness. “For me, it was a very nice thing to do as a coach again. We did it very well.”

SAFA president Dr Danny Jordaan also said while the defeat was disappointing, Bafana Bafana can hold their heads high after making history during this tournament.

“It is sad that we are bowing out of the World Cup, but we have to applaud this team after what they did in this tournament. They made history on Wednesday this week when we qualified for the second round for the first time ever after beating South Korea 1-0 in the last group match in Monterrey. We will take this with us when we go back home and build on it,” said Jordaan.

–IANS

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