Pienaar’s Call for Bafana Bafana: Break the Lines

Steven Pienaar has seen enough World Cups to know when something is missing. On Thursday night in Atlanta, watching Bafana Bafana scrap their way to a 1-1 draw against Czechia, the former South Africa star put his finger on it in real time.

No one was running in behind.

From his seat and his screen, the ex-Everton and Tottenham Hotspur winger took to X with a pointed question as the game drifted: "Why is there no running of the ball from Bafana? They all want the ball to feet, no deep runs."

The message cut through the noise. South Africa had just earned their first point of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, yet the performance still felt short of what the moment demanded.

Pienaar’s demand: break the lines

Pienaar built his career on timing and movement, on finding space where others saw traffic. So his irritation was telling.

To him, Bafana’s attack looked static. Too many players coming short. Too few stretching defenders. The kind of patterns that make life easy for a back four and suffocate any counter-attacking threat.

Even when the game finally tilted South Africa’s way, Pienaar didn’t soften his stance.

Bafana had trailed until the 83rd minute, when Teboho Mokoena stepped up and buried a penalty to level the match. The goal sparked a late surge; for a brief spell, Hugo Broos’ side looked like they might even steal it.

The comeback drew praise from Pienaar, but not a change of tune.

"Well done boys. Now, on to the next. Please, next, we game we need breaking runs - please boys," he wrote in a follow-up post after the final whistle.

Encouragement, yes. But wrapped around a clear tactical plea: run beyond the ball, or this World Cup will end like the others.

Familiar territory, higher stakes

The draw leaves South Africa bottom of Group A, but still alive. One point from two games. A narrow path to the knockouts. It all feels eerily familiar.

Pienaar knows this script. He was a key figure in the 2010 World Cup squad that captured a nation’s imagination but still fell short. Back then, Bafana went into their final group game on one point, beat France 2-1 in Bloemfontein, and still went home.

This time the margins are different.

In an expanded tournament, third place might be enough to reach the round of 32. That sliver of opportunity is what makes Wednesday’s decisive clash with South Korea in Guadalupe so loaded. Kick-off is 3 a.m. on Thursday for viewers back home in South Africa, but for Broos and his players, it might as well be prime time. There is no bigger stage.

The table is brutally simple: Mexico sit clear at the top with six points. South Korea are on three. Czechia and South Africa are locked on one point each, with goal difference keeping Bafana anchored to the bottom.

Win, and the conversation changes. Fail to find a cutting edge, and history repeats itself.

No Premier League stars, but a different kind of power

This is South Africa’s fourth World Cup appearance. They have never reached the knockout rounds. Another stat Pienaar would rather not see extended.

The current squad travels without a single active Premier League player. Lyle Foster’s relegation with Burnley stripped the group of its last English top-flight representative.

Yet that doesn’t mean South African football is shrinking. Quite the opposite.

At home, the domestic game is thriving. Mamelodi Sundowns have turned continental dominance into a habit, lifting a second CAF Champions League title in the 2025-26 season. In Rabat, in the second leg of the final against AS FAR, it was Mokoena again who delivered the decisive goal.

The same Mokoena who kept Bafana alive in Atlanta with that late penalty.

His rise mirrors the broader story: fewer global headliners, more hardened campaigners forged in high-pressure African club football. The question now is whether that steel can translate into the kind of fearless, vertical running Pienaar is demanding.

Runs or regrets

South Korea will not offer South Africa the luxury of a slow, patient game. They move the ball quickly, they press, they punish hesitation. A static Bafana front line will be easy to read, easy to pin back, easy to eliminate.

This is where Pienaar’s call bites hardest. Deep runs do more than chase hopeful passes. They drag defenders out of shape. They open lanes for late arrivals like Mokoena. They create the chaos in which underdogs thrive.

South Africa finished strong against Czechia. They showed character, composure from the spot, and a refusal to fold when the clock turned against them.

Now they need something else: conviction without the ball, courage to sprint into space, and the belief that this World Cup does not have to end with another brave, empty-handed farewell.

Pienaar has made his appeal. On Wednesday in Guadalupe, we find out if Bafana Bafana are willing to run with it.