Rob DawsonJun 18, 2026, 04:12 PM ET
ATLANTA -- South Africa head coach Hugo Broos has accused Czechia of not wanting to play football during their 1-1 draw at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Thursday.
A point apiece keeps World Cup hopes alive for both teams ahead of the final games in Group A.
- Clinching scenarios: Each team's route to the knockout stage - World Cup Daily Live
South Africa managed to snatch a late equalizer through Teboho Mokoena's penalty. But afterward Broos insisted his team deserved more, in part because of Czechia's direct approach to the game.
"Czechia is a physical team and they don't like to play football or a passing game," Broos said in his news conference.
"It's very straight, and they have the players for it. All the players are tall. So that means that for us it was very difficult with those high balls.
"And this is what Czechia did, and OK, it's a tactic. I can't say why this or why that. This is the coach who decides that, and maybe if I should be the coach of Czechia, I should do the same thing.
"But I think if you like football that you like more the game we played today than the game of Czechia."
Asked about Broos' comments, Czech boss Miroslav Koubek refused to be drawn into a war of words.
"That's his opinion," Koubek said. "He can have that opinion but my opinion is different."
As well as being critical of Czechia's style of play, Broos was also less than impressed with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
"If I can be very honest, this is not a football stadium," he said.
"It's a nice stadium, fantastic stadium. Everything you want, but only the grass is football. All the rest is not.
"It's a covered stadium, so yeah, I like to play in an open stadium. I don't feel really the atmosphere in such a stadium. When you compare it with Azteca, for example, that's a football stadium."
Source: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49110350/south-africa-coach-hugo-broos-czechia-world-cup-2026
