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Bafana Bafana training
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is expected to spring a surprise or two when he announces his final squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The announcement will take place during the team’s official sendoff at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Wednesday evening.
The World Cup bound team will then face Nicaragua in their farewell match at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Friday evening.
The deadline for the 48 nations to submit their final squads for next month’s FIFA World Cup is the 1st of June.
FIFA will then officially publish the final teams for the tournament on Tuesday, consisting of between 23 and 26 players.
Bafana Bafana assembled in Johannesburg on Monday ahead of the final team announced on Wednesday evening.
Broos will have a couple of tough decisions to make before then. After his team’s elimination in the round of 16 at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Morocco, Broos did not mince his words saying complacency, tactical ill-discipline, bad attitude and unprofessional conduct must be rooted out. And players making themselves guilty of this conduct would not be considered.
“I was very disappointed after the tournament. We didn’t achieve what we wanted first of all, secondly our level of the games we played was not what we were used to. The quality, the mentality, discipline it was not there, why? I know why but I don’t want to go into details but that was the fact and I think that was certainly one of the most important reasons we didn’t achieve, we didn’t perform like everyone expected,” says Broos.
Broos released his preliminary squad of 32 players last Thursday and will have to drop at least six players from that list for the World Cup. It is mandatory for each participating team to have three goalkeepers, meaning one of the four on the preliminary list has to go. It will not be Ronwen Williams who is the captain elect and a player back in form. Just like the newcomers who Broos selected for the most recent friendly internationals against Panama in March, players who provided the spark that was missing at AFCON.
“Yes, I’m hundred percent sure that it will be there when we go to the world cup and it will be there for the friendlies and that’s why we changed some things also in the team. I think we needed some new impulses and that will certainly reinstall the Bafana Bafana DNA,” Broos explains.
Four players who travelled to Morocco for AFCON have already been cut from the squad. They are injured defender Siyabona Ngezana, midfielders Bathusi Aubaas and Sipho Mbule, as well as forward Mohau Nkota while players such as Germany-based defender Ime Okon, midfielder Jayden Adams and teammate Themba Zwane have been recalled, Broos realizes wholesale changes could be detrimental.
“But others we know and it’s not because I called them to see if they are still good or what I know that they are good, I know that they have the Bafana Bafana DNA and that is not the main reason. The main reason is preparing for the world cup so now we have those two friendlies, and we still have a friendly at the end of May and then it’s the opening game against Mexico, so we don’t have so much time anymore to make experiments, no we have to go for the world cup in June,” Broos added.
Bafana Bafana leave for Mexico on Sunday and will play the co-hosts in the opening match of the tournament on 11 June in Mexico City.
