{"id":5177,"date":"2026-01-05T14:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/5177\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T14:24:07","slug":"south-africa-boss-urges-beaten-squad-to-seek-solace-in-2026-world-cup-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/5177\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa boss urges beaten squad to seek solace in 2026 World Cup trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cameroon beat Broos&#8217; side 2-1 on Sunday night at the Stade Al Barid in Rabat, Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>Junior Tchamadeu opened the scoring for Cameroon after 34 minutes. Christian Kofane doubled the advantage soon after the restart.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Though Evidence Makgopa halved the deficit in the 88th minute, South Africa could not find the equaliser in six minutes of second-half stoppage-time to force extra-time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the next days and weeks we will make an evaluation in detail on what was good and not good,&#8221; said Broos who steered Cameroon to the Cup of Nations crown in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And we will see what we have to change for the World Cup and we need to be ready for that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.sports.yahoo.com\/news\/egypt-nigeria-enter-last-16-115624422.html\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Egypt and Nigeria enter last-16 fray as favourites against Benin and Mozambique;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Egypt and Nigeria enter last-16 fray as favourites against Benin and Mozambique<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>South Africa went into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/tag\/africa-cup-of-nations-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2025 Africa Cup of Nations;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">2025 Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> among the favourites for the title having topped a 2026 World Cup qualifiying group that included Nigeria, Rwanda, Benin, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.<\/p>\n<p>After dispatching Angola in Marrakesh in their opening game at the Cup of Nations, South Africa lost to Egypt in Agadir and overcame Zimbabwe 3-2 in Marrakesh to advance to the knockout stages as Group B runners-up behind Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>Cameroon finished second behind defending champions C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire following two wins and a draw in Group F.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes you need luck on your side,&#8221; said Broos. &#8220;Two years ago in the quarter-final against Cape Verde our goalkeeper made a big save, otherwise we could have lost that game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t have luck on our side against Cameroon,&#8221; added the 73-year-old Belgian who took South Africa<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20240211-south-africa-beat-drc-on-penalties-to-take-bronze-at-2023-africa-cup-of-nations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:to third place;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> to third place<\/a> at the 2023 Cup of Nations in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20240212-hosts-zany-triumph-caps-feral-month-at-cup-of-nations-in-cote-d-ivoire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:C\u00f4te d&#039;Ivoire.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are not going backwards but we do have to make a good evaluation of what happened here at this tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.sports.yahoo.com\/news\/five-things-learned-day-6-122631283.html\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Five things we learned on Day 6: Nigeria find danger in dominance;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Five things we learned on Day 6: Nigeria find danger in dominance<\/a><\/p>\n<p>South Africa, who qualified for the World Cup for the first time since hosting the tournament in 2010, will face co-hosts Mexico in the opening game<a href=\"http:\/\/fifa.com\/fr\/tournaments\/mens\/worldcup\/canadamexicousa2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:on 11 June;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> on 11 June <\/a>before taking on South Korea and a European play-off winner in the group phase.<\/p>\n<p>Following Sunday night&#8217;s success, Cameroon move on to a quarter-final showdown on 9 January with hosts Morocco who came through their game against <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.sports.yahoo.com\/news\/tanzania-reach-cup-nations-knockout-222204233.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tanzania;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tanzania<\/a> 1-0 at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Skipper <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.sports.yahoo.com\/news\/hakimis-return-cup-nations-adds-075256629.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Achraf Hakim;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Achraf Hakim<\/a>i featured in the starting line-up for the first time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cafonline.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:at the tournament.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">at the tournament.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And the 27-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psg.fr\/en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Paris Saint-Germain;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Paris Saint-Germain<\/a> star laid on the pass for Brahim Diaz to strike the only goal of the game after 64 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.sports.yahoo.com\/news\/five-things-learned-day-8-235025208.html\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Five things we learned on Day 8: Hakimi up and running;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Five things we learned on Day 8: Hakimi up and running<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to congratulate my players for reaching the quarter-finals,&#8221; said Morocco coach Walid Regragui who led the squad to the semi-finals at the 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20221209-qatar-world-cup-day-of-destiny-for-france-england-morocco-and-portugal-qatar-kylian-mbapp\u00e9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:World Cup in Qatar.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">World Cup in Qatar.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We started the game against Tanzania in the second-half after a first 45 minutes in which there were far too many instances of poor control and choices.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We got our act together and played with more incisiveness. We should have scored earlier but the goal arrived at the right moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameroon beat Broos&#8217; side 2-1 on Sunday night at the Stade Al Barid in Rabat, Morocco. Junior Tchamadeu&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3990,63,166,143,3989,1504,3991,165,122,2115,1297,724,131,1938],"class_list":{"0":"post-5177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-2026-world-cup","9":"tag-africa","10":"tag-brahim-diaz","11":"tag-cameroon","12":"tag-cup-of-nations","13":"tag-junior-tchamadeu","14":"tag-mexico","15":"tag-morocco","16":"tag-nigeria","17":"tag-paris-saint-germain","18":"tag-qatar","19":"tag-rabat","20":"tag-south-africa","21":"tag-south-korea"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}