Overview
South Africa and Canada will open the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup with a confrontation at Los Angeles stadium. This is a historic milestone for both teams as before this year's World Cup, they had never passed the group stage.
This will be the first time since the 2002 World Cup that the first match in the knockout round will take place between two teams that are both participating in this stage for the first time. At that time, Turkey defeated host Japan 1-0, a result that could bring hope to South Africa when facing co-host Canada.
Few people thought South Africa would win a ticket to the next round after overcoming South Korea and the Czech Republic to rank second in Group A, only behind Mexico. Notably, "Bafana Bafana" is the team with the fewest touches of the ball in the opponent's penalty area (35) and created the fewest clear chances (2) in the group.
However, coach Hugo Broos seems very comfortable with the role of underdog. With 61st place in the FIFA rankings, South Africa is the third lowest ranked team to ever participate in the World Cup knockout round.
At the age of 74, Broos will also become the oldest coach to have ever led a team to compete in the World Cup knockout round.
The 1-0 victory over South Korea in the final round thanks to Thapelo Maseko's goal is the key to helping South Africa win a ticket to the next round. Although only playing 159 minutes in the group stage, Maseko is still the player with the most shots in the team with 8 shots.
The special thing about South Africa is that their last 11 goals at the World Cup were scored by 11 different players, showing the diversity in approaching the goal.
On the other side, Canada is rated slightly higher thanks to an effective attack under Jesse Marsch. Nathan Saliba contributed to 3 goals after two appearances at the 2026 World Cup with one goal and two assists.
Canada also showed a clear improvement in attacking ability when they launched 21 shots on target in the group stage, nearly double the total number of shots on target in the previous two World Cups combined.
However, the North American representative entered the knockout round after a 1-2 defeat to Switzerland in the final round, a result that caused them to lose the top spot in Group B.
With a higher rated position, Canada is expected to overcome South Africa. However, coach Jesse Marsch understands that the knockout round will not allow any mistakes.
Head-to-head record
This is only the second time South Africa and Canada have faced each other. In the only previous encounter, South Africa won 2-0 in a friendly match held in Durban in 2007.
History is also not on Canada's side when the North American representative lost all two matches against African teams in official tournaments. They once lost to Cameroon 0-2 at the 2001 Confederations Cup, before losing 1-2 to Morocco in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.
Score prediction: South Africa 0-1 Canada
The match between South Africa and Canada takes place at 2:00 AM on June 29 (Vietnam time).
