Meet South Africa\u2019s no-nonsense coach, who shut down a Trump question and critics back home <\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2014 South Africa coach Hugo Broos has fast become an unexpected highlight of this World Cup.<\/p>\n
At the age of 74, with thick silver hair and a seemingly permanent furrowed brow, the Belgian takes a no-nonsense approach to dealing with the media.<\/p>\n
Broos has shut down questions about Donald Trump, called out what he saw as the favorable treatment of Lionel Messi and told critics back in South Africa to \u201cshut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of that within a week of the tournament kicking off.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those who still don\u2019t know it, I do it my way,\u201d he said after former South Africa players rounded on his team\u2019s 2-0 loss to Mexico in the opening game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never listen to people who sometimes think that they are important enough to criticize the team. So when I\u2019m going to see what they did before, I think it should be better that they shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broos, who has said he will step down at the end of the tournament, led South Africa to its first World Cup since it was host in 2010.<\/p>\n
He is one of the oldest coaches ever to take part in a World Cup and, with 40 years of experience, he has no problem speaking his mind. He was, however, astute enough to avoid being drawn into a potential war of words with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday he listened intently as one reporter asked him and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams to comment on Trump\u2019s baseless claim there was a systematic killing of white farmers in South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will answer that question,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was more expansive about Messi\u2019s tackle on Algeria captain Aissa Mandi \u2014 especially when his own player Themba Zwane was sent off and subsequently given a three-match suspension after a VAR review of his clash with Mexico\u2019s Roberto Alvarado.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there was not even a VAR with Messi,\u201d Broos said. \u201cI don\u2019t want Messi to get a red card because that player has to be on the pitch … but, yeah, what is the difference here?\u201d<\/p>\n
A 1-1 draw with Czech Republic on Thursday kept alive South Africa\u2019s hopes of advancing from the group phase for the first time at a World Cup.<\/p>\n
Asked if he was relieved after Teboho Mokoena scored a late penalty, his response was typically blunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t I be relieved?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Then came criticism of the Czechs\u2019 long-ball tactics: \u201cI think if you like football that you like more the game we played today than the game of Czechia.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then Atlanta Stadium: \u201cIf I can be very honest, this is not a football stadium. It\u2019s a nice stadium, fantastic stadium, everything you want, but only the grass is football. All the rest is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
A win against South Korea on Wednesday would likely be enough to see South Africa advance from Group A.<\/p>\n
Broos, who is popular among fans, spoke this week of the reaction when he secured qualification to the World Cup:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was somebody who came to me and he said, \u2018Coach, they have to make a statue for you in South Africa.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, make it in wood so it will burn more easily when I lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meet South Africa\u2019s no-nonsense coach, who shut down a Trump question and critics back home ATLANTA \u2014 South…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":879800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,357473,2385,6061,357474,5208,47066,2961,17711,224,2444,5337,171514,72266,34963,9582,29238],"class_list":["post-879799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-daily-recap","tag-day","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-four-game-slate","tag-friday","tag-highlight","tag-la","tag-live-update","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-losangeles","tag-memorable-moment","tag-plenty","tag-result","tag-standing","tag-tv-schedule"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116780654025547786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}