LIVE UPDATES | Bafana Bafana v Czechia, all the build-up and action

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3.51pm – Greetings readers, Bafana Bafana supporters, die-hard fans and those who are simply curious.

Here we are again …

This is it folks – Game 2 of the 2026 Fifa World Cup for Bafana Bafana!

They face tough, physical Czechia at the 71,000-seat Atlanta Stadium, home of NFL’s Atlanta Falcons MLS’s and Atlanta United FC, with it’s retractable roof that has been closed for World Cup matches.

And as usual the stakes are supremely high, after a somewhat disappointing 2-0 defeat to Mexico at Estadio Azteca last Thursday.

This is your captain … sorry, Live Updates Blogger, speaking, Arena Holdings and TimesLIVE Sports Editor Marc Strydom, and as per usual I am not in Atlanta Stadium but in our company offices in Parktown. The hugely experienced Mahlatse Mphahlele is in Mexico and the US covering the World Cup on the ground for Arena and more about some of his excellent coverage a little later …

For now: to start, a brief note of foolish optimism as I make a quick case for why the Mexico defeat was perhaps not quite as bad as most South Africans have made out, and why SA might beat Czechia. Are we really going down this path of optimism that so often leads to painful disappointment again? I’m afraid so. As I said to a colleague in a corridor moments ago: why believe your team is going to lose? You have to believe they are going to win?

So: Yes, there are 2-0 defeats you are not so unhappy about and there are others you don’t feel good about. Most aspects of the loss on Thursday were the latter. But there were positives.

Mexico’s profile under coach Javier Aguire is of a team that must win ugly, must suffer. They have exited in the last 16 too many times and as co-hosts, he wants them to go further in this World Cup, winning through ultra-pragmatic football. So Bafana’s inability to string together passes much, the scrappy ugly nature of the game, have to be taken in that context.

Plus, Bafana went a man down for half-an-hour, and two down for the final 10 minutes, and were not overwhelmed. They went two goals down with 10, then nine, men, and were not overwhelmed and kept battling. They might not have been convincing on the ball, but they did fight and battle in the duels throughout. They lost 2-0 against the hosts in front of 80,000 home supporters in an opening game on a stage like Hugo Broos’ World Cup babes in the wood can never have comprehended before Thursday.

Other teams, some of decent strength – Tunisia Paraguay, Iraq Algeria – have taken heavier defeats in less difficult circumstances from similar-strength opponents. And arguably, the opener was Bafana’s toughest game in Group A.

To balance the optimism, Czechia are big and physical and strong on set pieces, all qualities Bafana have traditionally battled against in opposition teams.

But perhaps, just perhaps, if the South Africans now settle in a far less scrutinised game, at a neutral venue; Broos gets his tactics right, which he didn’t against Mexico, South just might be able to get soemthing from this game.

Here endeth the sermon. Get settled in your lounges, TV rooms, pubs, taverns and shebeens, pull up the popcorn, your beers, glasses of wine or similar beverages. Let’s get the build-up under way …

Let’s go Bafana Bafana!

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