The symptom of Bafana Bafana’s 2-0 loss to Mexico on Thursday is the individual mistakes that the team made, however, the cause lies in how the team prepared for this World Cup, writes Njabulo Ngidi.

At Azteca Stadium in Mexico City

The symptom of Bafana Bafana’s 2-0 loss to Mexico here on Thursday afternoon (Mexican time) is the individual mistakes that the players committed, along with coach Hugo Broos’ tactical shortcomings.

However, the cause of this loss is the team’s poor preparation for their first appearance in the FIFA World Cup in 16 years.

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Themba Zwane, the oldest player in the 26-man squad in Mexico, was 20 the last time Bafana played in the global showpiece.

At the time, Zwane was a promising talent at Mpumalanga Black Aces. Ronwen Williams was only 18 years old.

The rest of the players were still in school, with the likes of Ime Okon, Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Oswin Appollis and Relebohile Mofokeng at primary school.

So, when this generation booked their place in the Americas for the expanded World Cup on 14 October last year, a lot had to be done to bridge the gap between them and the best teams in the world.

This was vital to a team that had only played two European opponents in five years under Broos - which resulted in a 5-0 drubbing by the then reigning world champions, France.

Their other clash with a European side was a 1-1 draw with Andorra, a match they should have comfortably won as they were up against an inferior opposition and were the better side.

Bafana failed to take their chances, resulting in them playing to a stalemate. These two games showed how much ground Bafana still needed to make.

But due to a combination of the South African Football Association’s poor finances and Broos’ pragmatism, Bafana never really played against strong opponents - especially if they had a choice on who they will face.

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The toughest friendly that Bafana played under Broos, apart from the game against Les Bleus, was when they took on Ivory Coast in their own backyard.

The Elephants were using that match as preparation for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) that they were going to host.

Broos rejected a friendly against Morocco as he felt that was too soon for a team that was in re-building. There were reports that Saudi Arabia and Cameroon were looking to test themselves against Bafana, but those games never materialised.

Those are the missed opportunities that came back to haunt Bafana at the Azteca Stadium.

Bafana used opponents - in Panama, Nicaragua and Jamaica - that didn’t adequately help them to prepare for a tournament in which they are grouped with Mexico, Czechia and South Korea.

Broos has previously argued that a once-off match against a strong side like Brazil or Argentina wouldn’t be enough to help the team raise its game. He argued that South Africa needed to import its players to top leagues in Europe so that they can play against strong opponents week in, week out.

That’s true. But in the absence of a plethora of players in top leagues, the team needed to play against strong opposition to prepare for a World Cup that every member of their squad was going to be making their debut in.

Even in the weak opponents that the team faced, Broos didn’t use them to adequately prepare his team for the World Cup by firmly trying out different combinations.

Instead, the Belgian threw a big curveball in the opening match of the World Cup by starting with a new-look three-man centreback partnership in Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Nkosinathi Sibisi and Ime Okon.

He didn’t end there. The coach also started with Teboho Mokoena, Jayden Adams and Sphephelo Sithole for the first time in midfield, as well as naming Lyle Foster and Iqraam Rayners in the starting XI for the first time together up front.

Those changes and the absence of a playmaker resulted in Bafana lacking creativity and fluidity.

Broos had a good plan in starting with three centrebacks.

The trio was supposed to absorb the pressure that the Mexicans were going to throw at them in search of an early goal to calm the expectant crowd that can easily turn on their team if things don’t go their way.

There was added protection for Bafana with a three-man midfield. However, since all six were not used to playing together at this level, Bafana’s defensive game wasn’t as structured as it should have been.

Foster and Rayners were also not on the same page, with the two strikers even unaware of who between them is supposed to press the goalkeeper when he is holding the ball in an attempt to splice open Bafana.

For this approach to work, Bafana had to be organised in defence and be lethal up front where they looked good when Foster and Rayners broke on a counter early into the game. But since there was no playmaker, those chances were minimal - resulting in a situation where Bafana were continuously pinned into their own backyard.

It was in one of those moments when Bafana were trying to play their way out of the back that a mistake happened, with Sithole casual with the ball and not scanning enough.

He was bundled off the ball and Mexico took the lead. Nine minutes into the game.

“We didn’t want to concede in the first 20 minutes,” Williams told SABC after the game.

“That’s exactly what happened. We wanted to settle the nerves and the anxiety. But at this level, you make a mistake and they punish you.

“That’s what happened in the first 20 minutes. But then, we got into the game and had a few chances - catching them on a break a few times, but our final pass let us down.”

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Williams defended Broos’ tactics.

“When we analysed them, most of the games that they have played in the last year, they have played with a back five as well - a 3-5-2,” said Williams.

“We wanted to go with a similar approach, but have an extra number in midfield. They changed, and that’s how football is. They came with a back four. That’s what we had to figure out in the game, we had to go man-to-man.

“At this level, you need to learn and pick up (tactical adjustments) as soon as possible. It’s a tough lesson to take. But I don’t think that it had to do with the formation. We trained the whole week. We analysed and we studied them.

“We had a good game plan. But it was an error from us in the first half that gave them an opportunity to go on a front foot.”

Bafana made mistakes with this tactical approach because it hadn’t been tested on a high level. Broos’ decision to spring a surprise on Mexico ended with his players also surprised - even though Williams said they worked on this game plan the whole week.

The Bafana captain’s assertion that the team set up in order to counter Mexico is also a worrying trend as they have been reactive recently instead of being proactive.

The key driving force in the games against Egypt and Cameroon at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations was countering what these opponents were going to throw at Bafana, leaving little room to what kind of questions South Africa were going to ask their opponents.

Bafana’s analyst Sinesipho Mali ran onto the pitch at the end of half-time, debriefing Broos before the manager had even made it into the change room. That was how dire the tactical situation for Bafana was.

However, they came with minimal changes in the second half. Sithole’s frustrating night ended in a red card when he shouldn’t have made it back to the second half.

Bafana can find a way to cure the symptom in their next games against Czechia and South Korea, but if the team is to bridge the gap that exists between it and the best teams in the world, SAFA and the technical team need to address the cause of Bafana’s disappointing World Cup start.

*News24’s Njabulo Ngidi is attending the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America