{"id":36891,"date":"2026-06-12T08:59:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36891"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:59:40","slug":"sa-government-calls-on-bafana-bafana-coaches-to-remain-focused","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-government-calls-on-bafana-bafana-coaches-to-remain-focused\/","title":{"rendered":"SA government calls on Bafana Bafana, coaches to remain focused"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"x_divRplyFwdMsg\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\">South African (SA) government has encouraged the national soccer Team Bafana Bafana, its coaching and support staff to remain focused and confident as they prepare for their remaining matches in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup tournament.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Bafana Bafana lost 2-0 to co-hosts, Mexico in their opening group match on Thursday night.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Deputy Government Spokesperson William Baloyi says SA remains proud of Bafana Bafana and believes in their ability to bounce back stronger.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Bafana Bafana lost a player in each half after Siphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane received red cards. Sithole and Zwane will both miss the next game against the Czech Republic next Thursday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Coach Hugo Broos admits that his players were overwhelmed by the occasion.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a drop in the standards of my players it\u2019s just the fact that this level is much higher than whatever level. We are playing in the World Cup, against a good team, offensively I think we have to improve there were some opportunities that with the last pass the running of our players was not the right on. So, I think this is something to improve in the next days and I am sure we can play the same game but being better offensively.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36892,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-36891","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":"SA national soccer Team Bafana Bafana"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36891","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\/36891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36893,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36891\/revisions\/36893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}