South Africa midfielder Teboho Mokoena is proud that the team was able to put up a good fight despite getting eliminated by Canada at the round of 32 of the ongoing FIFA World Cup.
Co-hosts Canada scored a stoppage-time winner through Stephen Eustáquio to break South Africa’s resilience.
Mokoena believes they put up a great fight and only small margins eventually determined their fate at the end of the day.
“I’m proud of the performance from the boys. I think we gave it all our whole. If you look at the entire run in the tournament, you could see we were improving every game and it was cruel for us to concede a late goal today,” he stated before adding, “ at this level, the margins are too small and when they got their chance, they used it and it is what decided the game.”
Mokoena also stated that there was a bit of fatigue towards the end of the game and perhaps that led to loss of concentration.
“ I think both teams lost legs towards the end and that explains why the counterattacks in the final minutes. If you look at how they scored, I believe if I had two or three more steps, there was no way he was shooting at goal but like I said, we are proud of ourselves and the run we have had in the tournament.”
South Africa will now shift focus to the 2027 AFCON qualifiers that start in September. The Bafana Bafana are in Group D with Guinea, Kenya and Eritrea.
For Canada, their journey at the World Cup continues and they face either Netherlands or Morocco at the round of 16 on Saturday in Houston.
