‘It’s not an easy one’: Broos weighs in on Bafana’s World Cup group

South Africa head coach Hugo Broos says that the opening fixtures of the Fifa World Cup will be tough, given the pressure of the opening match and the group opponents.

Bafana Bafana have been drawn in Group A of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, alongside co-hosts Mexico, South Korea, and the winner of the European playoff D match.

This means that either Denmark, North Macedonia, the Republic of Ireland, or the Czech Republic will join South Africa.

Head coach Hugo Broos said that it will be a tough contest, especially with the possibility of Denmark in the group.

“It’s not an easy one. First of all, you have to play the first game of the tournament against Mexico, which will be a home game for them, so it will be very tough for us,” Broos said.

“With Mexico and potentially Denmark, it will be difficult for us to be in second or first place in the group.

However, Broos says that the new World Cup format, which will see the top eight teams ranked third in their group qualify for the knockout rounds, will give Bafana Bafana an additional opportunity to progress in the tournament.

“It’s not going to be easy, but on the bright side, it’s going to be a great experience for our team,” he said.

The draw for the most-watched sports tournament in the world took place on Saturday evening, which also included the announcement of the group stage schedules.

Bafana Bafana will be playing in the opening match of the tournament against Mexico on 11 June 2026 at the Mexico City Stadium at 10 p.m. South African time.

The fixture will be reminiscent of when South Africa hosted the World Cup and played El Tri in the very first contest, where Siphiwe Tshabalala opened the scoring with a rocket in the first half.

Bafana’s second match will be played on 18 June against the team that secures qualification in the playoff. Atlanta will host the fixture, which is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m.

A week later, South Africa will head back to Mexico to take on South Korea, which will be broadcast at 4 a.m. South African time.

2026 World Cup

The 23rd edition of the tournament, which takes place every four years, will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Most matches will be played in the US, with Mexico and Canada as auxiliary hosts.

This will be the first time that more than one nation has hosted the tournament since 2002, when it was held in Korea and Japan.

South Africa, which qualified for the tournament, narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockout stages, with Slovenia progressing ahead of it only because it had scored more goals.

The 2026 World Cup will also be the first time more than 32 teams have been included in the competition, with 48 squads being able to qualify.

This will not affect the number of games played by each team, as Fifa has expanded the number of groups rather than the number of teams in a group.

However, this will increase the total number of games played throughout the tournament from 64, as in the past seven tournaments, to 104.