For two days after suffering a demoralising 2-0 loss in the opening match of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, the Bafana Bafana training camp was solemnly silent, filled with anguish, according to captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
Weighing their actions for two days before heading back to training camp for their second group match against Czechia is how the boys spent the past few days.
Williams said there was a lot of emotions to deal with, especially given how much the team dedicated to get there. Having their big moment blow up in their faces, with the entire world watching, was a lot to deal with mentally.
“After the game it was it was difficult. We felt disappointment and pain because we worked so hard for that opening game. And over the last few years, we worked hard to get here to this moment. It hurt us so much in terms of our performance and result.
“For about two or three days after that, you could hear a pin drop in camp. The guys were in pain. In that kind of moment, you don’t say too much. You just want to get it out of your system and everyone deals with it differently. But we have an experienced coach who let us be for a couple days,” Williams said.
While Bafana acted like John Lennon and let it be, they knew in the back of their minds that a tense battle with the Czech’s were looming. Czechia lost their opening game against South Korea, leaving both teams with a do or die attitude going into the match on Wednesday evening.
The cycle of being depressed after a loss and then getting over it before the next match had to be expedited but Ronza thinks the boys are ready.
“We did a de-briefing after the Mexico game and we all saw where we went wrong. Since we started analysing Czechia, you could see the energy coming back into the team. The belief was back. And that’s the most important thing. We don’t want to lose that belief,” Williams said.
Bafana play Czechia at 6pm on Thursday at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Jehran Naidoo is sports reporter for Independent Media and social media coordinator of the our YouTube channel The Clutch
