Williams urges keeping this Bafana team together, sees bright future after World Cup

Hope for the future was the predominant sentiment Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams took from the team’s performance at the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

As supporters digest their team’s display, the prevailing sentiment seems to have been that there was a lot of good, and there was some bad.

Coach Hugo Broos’s Bafana Bafana punched above their weight in North America. In a 48-team World Cup there will be some soft touch groups. South Africa’s was not one of those.

Mexico, perennial qualifiers as the powerhouse of Concacaf and permanent fixtures in the last 16 at the World Cup, were ranked 15^th going into the tournament and making their 18^th World Cup appearance. South Korea, ranked 25^th, had qualified for every World Cup since 1986, finished fourth as hosts in 2002, reached the last 16 twice and had a combination based at strong clubs they had high hopes for in 2026. Czechia, ranked 41^st, had eliminated Denmark in the qualifiers and while they had only reached two World Cups since 1990 from the tough European zone, had performed decently in European Championships with a semifinal and two quarterfinal appearances since 2004.

Bafana were ranked 60^th, were competing in their fourth World Cup, one of those having been as hosts in 2010, and had never progressed past a group stage. They were largely derided after their nervy, double red card 2-0 submission to Mexico in the World Cup opening match. It was some comeback to earn the world’s respect with a much-improved 1-1 draw against the Czechs and genuinely impressive 1-0 win against South Korea to earn South Africa’s first World Cup group stage progression. A physical Canada muscled Bafana off the ball in the last 32 but even then only prevailed via Stephen Eustáquio’s last-gasp 92^nd-minute winner.

The best part was the youth of the team. Oswin Appollis, 24, Relebohile Mofokeng, 21, Mbekezeli Mbokazi, 20, Thapelo Maseko, 22, Jayden Adams, 25, Ime Okon, 22, and Kamogelo Sebelebele, 23, got their first taste of playing at a World Cup and showed they can compete on the stage.

Khulumani Ndamane, Samukele Kabini and Olwethu Makhanya, all 22, did not play but were exposed to the environment. These players could form the core of a squad that can compete at two more World Cups.

The flip side to the optimism was the questions over whether Bafana would even have qualified had it not been a 48-team World Cup, some of Broos’ tactics, and that when the opposition lifted the intensity, their players based at higher-level leagues could provide muscle and precision the South Africans battled to answer.

Williams, though, rightly took the positive of this World Cup being a real building block by a young Bafana on the path to recovery from two decades of depressing underachievement.

The 34-year-old captain was still so crucial to the team with his interventions in goal, as South Africa’s other star players were in Teboho Mokoena with his ball winning and playing ability in central midfield, and Mbokazi with his giant displays in defence.

Williams was asked about Mbokazi’s and Okon’s performances, as the young central defensive pairing was never overwhelmed by experienced, quality attacks and conceded just four goals in their four games.

“I think they’ve been magnificent throughout the tournament. Especially having two young centrebacks in front of you [as a goalkeeper] — I mean, normally you’d have your more experienced players there and they showed their quality,” the Mamelodi Sundowns keeper said.

“I’m so proud of not only the two of them, there are so many young players in the team. I am excited for the future of the team.

“To be playing at this level at such a young age, learning these lessons, having these experiences can only be positive for the team and for the players.

“For now, we need to stick together as a team, as a country, and build on this. It shouldn’t take us years and years again to be part of a World Cup. There needs to be continuity and I think there will be, because the young players are picking up experience playing at Afcon, at the Club World Cup and now at the World Cup. We need to keep going as a country.”

Asked about the lessons learned, Williams admitted there is a gap between Bafana’s and their opponents’ ability to apply themselves with maximum precision.

“We need to believe in ourselves,” he said. “We showed we can compete, we need to stick to what we know.

“But I think the most important thing you take out is how clinical the opponents are. When I look back throughout the tournament, with the amount of chances we created we only managed to score two goals.

“So we need to be better, we need to be more clinical, because at this level you aren’t going to get too many chances, so the chances you do get you need to take and wrap up the game.

“And I’ve mentioned this before, at the Club World Cup, at Afcon, you can dominate the ball but the most important thing is to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Broos might not have got all his decisions right at the World Cup. There can be little doubt, however, that without the revival of the last five years under the 74-year-old Belgian, fielding young players and bringing back confidence as he steered Bafana to their best finish in 24 years of third place at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2024, South Africa were unlikely to have been at this World Cup, let alone be competitive there.

Williams’s bromance with his coach has been obvious. He did not hold back in his praise for Broos, who has announced his retirement from coaching after the World Cup but made noises at the tournament of staying on, or perhaps taking a technical role.

“Magnificent, amazing. What a human being. He’s like a father figure, a friend, a brother, a super-coach,” Williams said. “The belief he’s instilled in this team since day one.

“We learnt so much from coach Hugo. And if it is his last [assignment], he can bow out with his head held high because the boys showed up today, they competed, especially at the elite level. Just proud to have worked with coach Hugo.”