{"id":37707,"date":"2026-06-22T10:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37707"},"modified":"2026-06-22T10:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:40:22","slug":"algerias-world-cup-fate-in-their-own-hands-coach","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/algerias-world-cup-fate-in-their-own-hands-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Algeria\u2019s World Cup fate in their own hands: Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Algeria have their fate in their own hands when they take on Jordan on Monday in a high-stakes World Cup encounter in California, coach Vladimir Petkovic said, with both sides facing the possibility of early elimination.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The permutations in play are complex and many, but those should become clearer at the conclusion of Monday\u2019s other Group J match in Texas, where Argentina take on Austria after winning starts for both teams.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Algeria had an unenviable opening match against World Cup holders Argentina and ended up on the wrong end of a Lionel Messi hat-trick in a 3-0 defeat.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Desert Foxes will exit the tournament if they lose to Jordan and Austria can take at least a point.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cOne thing is for sure, we want to try and make sure that our fate is in our own hands and produce a performance befitting of that,\u201d Petkovic told a press conference on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Algeria\u2019s last appearance in the tournament was the 2014 World Cup when they reached the last 16 and they are hoping a squad rich in talent can make the knockout rounds again.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Petkovic said his side did not play badly against Argentina and the match against Jordan in the San Francisco Bay Area would provide a chance to shine that was not possible against the defending champions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe played well and we were punished by some individual pieces of skill from Lionel Messi, we\u2019re all aware this was a match that we didn\u2019t necessarily need to win at all costs,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThey\u2019ve got a great desire to get out there, to play well, and they want to stay in the United States as long as possible.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Argentina could win the group with a victory on Monday, an outcome that would mean World Cup debutants Jordan must avoid defeat to prevent early elimination.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Petkovic said Jordan would be altogether different opponents than Argentina.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt will be a game that will give us a lot of momentum to try and make it out of the group against very tough opponents,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cJordan are good across the board, they\u2019re very compact defensively, they\u2019re a very physical side, but we have our own ability and quality.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37708,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37707","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Algeria have their fate in their own hands","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37707","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\/37707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37709,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37707\/revisions\/37709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}