{"id":36887,"date":"2026-06-12T08:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36887"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:58:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:58:05","slug":"sa-supporters-disappointed-as-bafana-bafana-lose-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-supporters-disappointed-as-bafana-bafana-lose-world-cup-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"SA supporters disappointed as Bafana Bafana lose World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Disappointment swept through viewing venues across South Africa (SA) as Bafana Bafana suffered a bitter defeat to Mexico in their opening FIFA World Cup encounter in Mexico City on Thursday night.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Supporters watched every moment of the match with passion and anticipation, filling venues with cheers, songs and South African flags.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">While the result was not what these fans in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape province, had hoped for, many remained behind after the final whistle, expressing confidence in the team\u2019s ability to bounce back.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cI think that at the end of the match we have to as a country reflect on this , we haven\u2019t been in the world cup in the last 16 years and also we respected the opponents too much.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cThat second red card was , it really got to me because you moved into a place and then you dived as the Mexican player and the SA player gets a red card , what are the rules ? The rules are becoming subjective now,\u201d says another supporter.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept away SA\u00a02-0 on Thursday in an encounter with three red cards as the quadrennial football extravaganza got underway at the Azteca stadium.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36890,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-36887","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept away SA\u00a02-0.","published_date":"","news_description":"Mexico got the World Cup party started as the co-hosts swept away SA\u00a02-0.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36887","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\/36887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36888,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36887\/revisions\/36888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}