{"id":33088,"date":"2025-08-29T16:57:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=33088"},"modified":"2025-08-29T21:46:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T19:46:36","slug":"broos-slams-bloemfontein-pitch-ahead-of-world-cup-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/08\/29\/broos-slams-bloemfontein-pitch-ahead-of-world-cup-qualifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Broos slams Bloemfontein pitch ahead of World Cup qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_33089\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33089\" style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-33089\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-770x601.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-770x601.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-1170x914.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-768x600.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-1536x1200.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-2048x1599.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33089\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hugo Broos, head coach of South Africa during the 2025 International Friendly South Africa Press conference at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on 9 June 2025 \u00a9Brian Rikhotso\/BackpagePix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bafana Bafana head coach, Hugo Broos, has slammed the poor state of the Free State Stadium pitch in Bloemfontein, where South Africa will host Lesotho and Nigeria in their 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers next month.<\/p>\n<p>Bafana face neighbours Lesotho on the 5 September and then take on Nigeria&#8217;s Super Eagles four days later.<\/p>\n<p>Announcing his 23-man squad \u2014 which includes new faces Zuko Mndunyelwa, Kamogela Sebelebele, Mduduzo Shabalala and Ime Okon \u2014 Broos expressed disappointment at the venue\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am a bit disappointed, I was in Bloemfontein and I saw the pitch,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They said they had the Cosafa Cup there, but that ended halfway through June. They had six weeks to fix it. I have seen the effort that other cities made \u2013 Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Polokwane. I am very disappointed they (Bloemfontein) didn\u2019t do the same.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added that Bafana have changed their itinerary, and will now stay in Johannesburg\u00a0from Monday and will only head out to Bloemfontein next Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even the training pitch (in Bloemfontein) is bad,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Lesotho are the hosts (of the first game) so we can\u2019t really complain. But then we have Nigeria and we are disappointed,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1187\" data-end=\"1358\">Bafana remain the favourites to qualify for the 2026 World Cup which will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. They lead their group with 13 points, five clear of Rwanda and Benin, who are tied on eight.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos announces the squad to face Lesotho and Nigeria in two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers next month.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SABC_Sport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SABC_Sport<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BafanaPride?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BafanaPride<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gwTiEiZ8FR\">pic.twitter.com\/gwTiEiZ8FR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BafanaBafana\/status\/1961013991238504506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bafana Bafana head coach, Hugo Broos, has slammed the poor state of the Free State Stadium pitch in Bloemfontein, where South Africa will host Lesotho and Nigeria in their 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers next month. Bafana face neighbours Lesotho on the 5 September and then take on Nigeria&#8217;s Super ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B042A2242-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33088"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33101,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33088\/revisions\/33101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}