{"id":38256,"date":"2026-06-28T17:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T15:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38256"},"modified":"2026-06-28T17:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T15:26:11","slug":"sa-president-wishes-bafana-bafana-well-ahead-of-canada-match","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-president-wishes-bafana-bafana-well-ahead-of-canada-match\/","title":{"rendered":"SA President wishes Bafana Bafana well ahead of Canada match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent a message of support to the national soccer team ahead of their crucial FIFA World Cup knockout match against Canada in Los Angeles tonight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The match is scheduled to kick off at 21:00 CAT. According to a statement from the Presidency, while SA and Canada maintain strong bilateral relations, both leaders have lightheartedly agreed to disagree on the impending football result.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bafana Bafana enter the fixture on a historic high following their dramatic progression from the group stage. According to tournament statistics, SA secured their place in the knockout rounds after clinching a memorable one nil victory over South Korea, courtesy of a second half goal by Thapelo Maseko. Ramaphosa expressed his optimism that the national squad will sustain their winning momentum and secure a coveted spot in the round of 16.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35912,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[305,20],"class_list":["post-38256","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-special-projects","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa faces Canada in historic World Cup knockout match tonight","published_date":"2026-06-28 13:22:26","news_description":"South Africa faces Canada in historic World Cup knockout match tonight","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38256","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\/38256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38257,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38256\/revisions\/38257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}