{"id":35673,"date":"2026-05-28T09:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35673"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:24:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:24:44","slug":"35673","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/35673\/","title":{"rendered":"Make SA proud, we wish you strength: President to Bafana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Bafana Bafana Head coach, Hugo Broos has named his 26 final squad that will face Mexico, Czechia and South Korea on the FIFA World Cup 2026 which is expected to start on June 11 2026.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>In-form Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Sipho Chaine who has the most clean sheets in the Betway Premiership made it to final squad, alongside with Ricardo Goss and Ronwen Williams.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Kaizer Chiefs defender Bradley Cross and Philadelphia Union defender Olwethu Makhanya are set to be making their national debut, while the 36 year-old Themba Zwane also made to the final squad.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Broos says it wasn\u2019t easy to choose the final 26, he also urged those players who were left out from the squad to not be disappointed.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI know the disappointment for the players who will not be announced for the World Cup will be too much. I mean, who doesn\u2019t want to go to the World Cup,\u201d says Broos<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Bafana Bafana will be participating in this tournament for the first time since the 2010 FIFA World Cup, that was hosted in South Africa (SA).<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Bafana Bafana\u2019s first game will be against Mexico on June 11.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>SA President Cyril Ramaphosa says he will declare a public holiday if the team wins the tournament.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cMake SA proud, we wish you strength, we wish you focus and success as you depart this tournament. I will be there when you lift the trophy on July. 19\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014SABC\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14530,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-35673","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Broos says it wasn\u2019t easy to choose the final 26, he also urged those players who were left out from the squad to not be disappointed.","published_date":"","news_description":"Broos says it wasn\u2019t easy to choose the final 26, he also urged those players who were left out from the squad to not be disappointed.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35673","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35675,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35673\/revisions\/35675"}],"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=35673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}