{"id":21145,"date":"2025-12-16T08:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-afcon-preparations-continue-with-ghana-send-off-match\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:17","slug":"sas-afcon-preparations-continue-with-ghana-send-off-match","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-afcon-preparations-continue-with-ghana-send-off-match\/","title":{"rendered":"SA\u2019s AFCON preparations continue with Ghana send-off match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa (SA) coach Hugo Broos says today\u2019s friendly against Ghana\u2019s locally based squad is aimed more at assessing players and sharpening match fitness than chasing a result.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian tactician intends to use the send-off fixture to evaluate fringe players as SA enter the final phase of their preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Broos believes the exercise will help him fine-tune options ahead of the Group B opener.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe game is more of a training match than a selection match,\u201d Broos said. \u201cI am happy that we have a game, even if it is against a team that is not one of the strongest. It is important to get this match, and on the other hand, I can leave some players out because of minor injuries. I don\u2019t want to take risks that could lead to more serious injuries and potentially miss the AFCON.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The friendly provides an opportunity for SA to test squad depth while managing player fitness, as the team looks to enter the tournament in peak condition.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14685,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-21145","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Coach Hugo Broos says today\u2019s friendly against Ghana\u2019s locally based squad is aimed more at assessing player","published_date":"2025-12-16 10:23:06","news_description":"Coach Hugo Broos says today\u2019s friendly against Ghana\u2019s locally based squad is aimed more at assessing player","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24924,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21145\/revisions\/24924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}