{"id":22101,"date":"2026-01-07T11:35:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/afcon-exit-does-not-reflect-bafana-bafanas-true-quality-doctor-khumalo\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:10","slug":"afcon-exit-does-not-reflect-bafana-bafanas-true-quality-doctor-khumalo","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/afcon-exit-does-not-reflect-bafana-bafanas-true-quality-doctor-khumalo\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON exit does not reflect Bafana Bafana\u2019s true quality: Doctor Khumalo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Bafana Bafana legend Doctor Khumalo believes South Africa\u2019s performances at this year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations did not accurately reflect the team\u2019s true potential.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Khumalo, a member of the 1996 AFCON-winning squad, was speaking in Rabat, Morocco, where he is serving as a CAF ambassador. He watched Bafana\u2019s 2\u20131 defeat to Cameroon on Sunday, a result that saw South Africa exit the tournament.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to Khumalo, the team that competed in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers showed far greater cohesion and confidence than the side that featured at AFCON in Morocco.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe edition in Ivory Coast was not the same as the one in Morocco. In Ivory Coast, the team was dominated by Sundowns players, but in Morocco it\u2019s only Pirates and Sundowns, so it\u2019s really not the same,\u201d said Khumalo.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He added that the team\u2019s style of play had also changed noticeably.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe fluidity of the game is not the same. When we played in the World Cup and AFCON qualifiers, we were a monster, we were unstoppable, but that changed,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Khumalo\u2019s comments come as SA reflects on another early AFCON exit, despite encouraging performances in recent international qualifiers.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14530,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-22101","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Khumalo is a member of the 1996 AFCON-winning squad.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Khumalo is a member of the 1996 AFCON-winning squad.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22101","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\/22101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25514,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22101\/revisions\/25514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}