South Africa head coach Hugo Broos has dismissed claims of a tactical decline following his team’s elimination from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations at the hands of Cameroon on Sunday night. The Indomitable Lions secured a 2-1 victory at the Al Medina Stadium in Rabat, bringing an abrupt end to Bafana Bafana’s knockout journey just two years after their impressive bronze-medal finish in Ivory Coast.
Despite the early departure, the veteran Belgian strategist maintained that his squad performed with distinction, attributing the loss to a lack of clinical fortune rather than a systemic failure.
Bafana Bafana navigated a challenging group stage in Morocco, finishing as runners-up in Group B after claiming hard-fought victories over Angola and Zimbabwe, alongside a narrow defeat to Egypt. Broos highlighted that while the results occasionally lacked aesthetic flair, the team’s competitive spirit remained intact throughout the tournament. He specifically referenced the thin margins of international football, noting that the luck which propelled them through a penalty shootout against Cape Verde in the previous edition simply deserted them in the Moroccan capital.
“We don’t go backwards — maybe in some games performances were not at the level of South Africa that everyone knows, but you can’t say that for today,” Broos asserted during his post-match briefing. “Sometimes you need luck on your side, and two years ago in the quarter-final against Cape Verde, Ronwen Williams made a big save, otherwise, we could have lost that game. Today we didn’t have luck on our side. We are not going backwards, but we do have to make a good evaluation of what happened here at this tournament as we look forward to the World Cup.”
The focus for the South African national team now shifts exclusively to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, marking their first appearance on the global stage since they hosted the event in 2010. Broos successfully guided the side to the top of their qualifying group, famously finishing ahead of West African giants Nigeria. South Africa faces a formidable Group A schedule in North America, opening the tournament against co-hosts Mexico on June 11 at the Azteca Stadium, followed by clashes with South Korea and a European play-off winner.
With the World Cup kickoff only six months away, the coaching staff intends to conduct a comprehensive review of the AFCON campaign to refine the roster for upcoming friendly matches in March. Broos remains adamant that this period of introspection will ensure the team reaches its peak condition before traveling to the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
“In the next days and weeks we will make an evaluation in detail on what was good and not good, and we will see what we have to change because the World Cup is in six months and we need to be ready for that. We will see that we are ready in March to play those friendlies and be well prepared for the World Cup,” Broos concluded.
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