Bafana coach Broos promises top-down review after Afcon failure

Visibly disappointed Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has promised a thorough review of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which may come with serious repercussions for certain players and members of the support staff.

Bafana, who are bound for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, were eliminated in the last-16 stage by a more organised Cameroon at Al Medina Stadium here in Rabat on Sunday night, leaving more questions than answers.

Cameroon beat South Africa 2-1 in their exciting clash to progress to the quarterfinals, where they will meet hosts Morocco at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on Friday.

After Bafana arrived in Morocco with a reputation as one of the teams to beat after they finished third in the previous Afcon, there is much to ponder for Broos.

They scraped past the group stages with two unconvincing wins over Angola and Zimbabwe and a loss to Egypt, and were muscled out of the tournament by the Indomitable Lions.

“It’s emotional, and there is frustration. And you know when emotions are high sometimes when you say certain things you regret them later, and I am not going to do that,” Broos said in his post-match press conference when asked what went wrong.

He could only promise a top-down review that may affect a number of people in the national team set-up before the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada in June and July.

“In the coming days and weeks we will make a detailed evaluation of what was good and not good at this tournament. We will see what we have to change and what not to change because in six months there is the World Cup and we need to be ready for that.

“We need to look at what the problems and good things there were so we are ready again in March to play those pre-World Cup friendly matches and we are ready for the World Cup.”

Broos is never shy to speak his mind, but he has always protected players and staff.

“We have to evaluate what happened and try to be better going forward. I can make declarations now, but when you lose a game like this and you are eliminated from the tournament, you are frustrated, sad and disappointed.

“Sometimes you say things that you regret afterwards but we are going to evaluate our performances and see what we can do going forward.”

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