Steven Pienaar's Call for Courage in Bafana Bafana's World Cup Campaign
Steven Pienaar has seen this film before. A South African side clinging to hope, a final group game looming, and a World Cup campaign balanced on the thinnest of margins. This time, he wants one thing above all from Bafana Bafana: runners. Relentless, brave, willing to dart in behind.
From his seat, phone in hand, the former South Africa, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur playmaker watched Bafana’s 1-1 draw with Czechia in Atlanta and went straight to the point.
“Why is there no running of the ball from Bafana? They all want the ball to feet, no deep runs,” he posted on X during the game.
South Africa had just clawed their way back. Teboho Mokoena, nerveless from the spot in the 83rd minute, had levelled the match and ignited a late surge that briefly made a first World Cup win since 2010 feel possible. The equaliser gave them their first point of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It did not move them off the bottom of Group A.
The comeback did not soften Pienaar’s view. The performance, he felt, still lacked incision.
“Well done boys. Now, on to the next. Please, next, we game we need breaking runs – please boys,” he wrote after the final whistle, doubling down on his demand for movement beyond the ball.
A familiar knife-edge
The table tells a harsh story. Mexico sit clear at the top of Group A with six points. South Korea have three. Czechia and South Africa are level on one point each, but Bafana trail on goal difference and sit fourth.
They now head to Guadalupe for a decisive clash with South Korea next Wednesday – a game that kicks off at 3 a.m. on Thursday for viewers back home – knowing the margins are brutal. Lose, and they are out. Draw, and they are almost certainly gone. Win, and a path may yet open.
The echoes of 2010 are hard to ignore. Pienaar was a central figure in that squad, orchestrating attacks, carrying the hopes of a country as South Africa became the first African nation to host the World Cup. Back then, Bafana also reached their final group game with one point from two matches. They beat France 2-1 in Bloemfontein, a famous scalp, but it was not enough to escape the group.
This time the format offers a sliver more generosity. With the tournament expanded, third place might be enough to reach the round of 32. Might. Nothing is guaranteed, and Pienaar knows that fine details – like runs made or not made – often decide tournaments.
A call for courage in attack
His criticism cuts to the heart of South Africa’s attacking approach. Against Czechia, Bafana improved as the game wore on, pushed higher, and asked more questions. Yet Pienaar’s frustration lay in the lack of variety: too many players showing for the ball, not enough willing to stretch the defence, to turn centre-backs towards their own goal.
For a man who built his career on exploiting space between the lines and releasing runners beyond him, the absence of those “breaking runs” stands out. To him, it is not a minor tweak. It is the difference between being predictable and being dangerous.
The stakes in Guadalupe will demand that kind of bravery. South Korea, with three points already banked, can afford to probe and counter. South Africa cannot. They need to chase the game without losing their heads, to find the balance between control and risk that has so often eluded them on this stage.
A nation still waiting for a breakthrough
This is South Africa’s fourth appearance at a World Cup. They have never reached the knockout rounds. That statistic hangs over every tournament, every group-stage finale, every “decisive” night that ends in regret.
There is no current Premier League star to lean on either. After Lyle Foster’s relegation with Burnley, Bafana arrive at this World Cup without an active English top-flight player in the squad. The glamour is thinner, the global headlines fewer.
Yet the domestic game is anything but subdued. Mamelodi Sundowns, the standard-bearers at home, have just claimed a second CAF Champions League title in the 2025-26 season. Mokoena, the man who kept South Africa alive in Atlanta, also delivered on the continent’s biggest club stage, scoring the decisive goal against AS FAR in the second leg of the final in Rabat.
That parallel is impossible to miss. The same midfielder stepping up from the spot to salvage a point for his country, having already proven he can decide a final for his club. It hints at a new generation that is not cowed by big moments.
The question now is whether that club swagger can translate to the World Cup, and whether Pienaar’s plea for “breaking runs” will be heard when it matters most. In Guadalupe, there will be nowhere left to hide.
