04/01/2026

SPORTS 12 theSun on Sunday JAN 4, 2026

HUGO BROOS is hoping to lead South Africa to Cup of Nations glory in Morocco but standing in his team’s way in the last 16 tomorrow (3am Malaysian time) are Cameroon, the country with whom he won an unlikely continental title in 2017. The showdown at the compact Al Medina Stadium in Rabat has the makings of a fascinating contest between a Bafana Bafana side building towards the World Cup and a Cameroon team that entered the Afcon in disarray. Cameroonian football federation president and Indomitable Lions legend Samuel Eto’o sacked national team coach Marc Brys just weeks before the competition started, replacing him with David Pagou. Brys had just overseen a playoff defeat against the Democratic Republic of Congo in the same Rabat stadium to which they will return this weekend. That ended their hopes of making the World Cup, but they have bounced back so far at the Cup of Nations, winning two and drawing one of three group matches. Broos, a Belgian compatriot of Brys, knows all about how dangerous Cameroon can be coming into an Afcon tournament to a backdrop of turmoil. He led a makeshift Indomitable Lions squad, missing some of their biggest names who had refused to accept call-ups, to the title in Gabon in 2017. They beat Egypt 2-1 in the final to claim their fifth continental crown. “If you told someone before the tournament we would get to the final they would have laughed, but this for us was a big motivation,” Broos said at the time. Fast forward nine years and his focus now is on improving on South Africa’s performance at the last Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in 2024, when they reached the semifinals and eventually finished third. Broos, now aged 73, has also led Bafana Bafana to qualification for the upcoming World Cup, their first appearance since hosting the tournament in 2010. They topped their qualifying section ahead of Nigeria and will face co-hosts Mexico in the opening game on June 11 before also taking on South Korea and a European play-off winner in the group phase. Before that, a tough path through the Cup of Nations knockout stages awaits South Africa and Broos, whose approach to the competition was marred by allegations of racist and sexist remarks. The former Belgian international apologised last month after comments made about defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi and the agent who handled the player’s recently-agreed transfer from Orlando Pirates to Chicago Fire. He is certainly not afraid of speaking out, and criticism of the atmosphere at this Cup of Nations cannot have gone down well with organisers or with the South African president of the Confederation of African Football, Patrice Motsepe. “I don’t feel the same vibe as what I felt in Ivory Coast and in Gabon,” Broos remarked. “I don’t know how to explain it but in Ivory Coast and Gabon, every second of the tournament you felt that you were in a tournament. “When we went with the bus to train, people were waving flags, and here you feel nothing. “There is no vibe. There is no typical Afcon vibe. I don’t feel it here.” He has also not been entirely pleased with his team, who needed late goals to beat Angola and Zimbabwe in the group stage, either side of a narrow loss against Egypt. Broos says they keep “falling asleep after taking leads”, and will expect an improvement against Cameroon. Remarkably, it will be just the second meeting of the sides at the Cup of Nations – the only previous clash came in their opening group game in 1996, when hosts South Africa triumphed 3-0 on the way to winning the trophy. Whoever emerges victorious tomorrow will face either Morocco or Tanzania in the quarterfinals. – AFP Bafana Bafana’s Broos ready for Indomitable Lions

Stokes says no coasting in ‘huge’ final Ashes clash CAPTAIN Ben Stokes yesterday called the fifth and final Test against Australia a “huge game” for England and vowed there would be no coasting at the end of a long and draining Ashes tour.

“So although we get to go home on eight or nine days’ time, any thought of that can wait till then. It’s about what we do over the next five days, that’s the most important thing.” England named a 12-man squad on Friday with seamer Matthew Potts and spinner Shoaib Bashir included. Potts is the only unused fast bowler from their original 16-man squad and is set to play after Gus Atkinson limped off with a hamstring issue in Melbourne. Bashir and Will Jacks are expected to vie for the final spot. Stokes said England also needed more time, but admitted no one really knew how the wicket would play despite captains and coaches pretend ing they did. – AFP

hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to, but we’ve got one more game in a big series. “And it’s a real big one for us. So although we can’t get the thing that we came here for, we’ve still got a chance to go there and win a game of cricket.” Stokes, whose side has been hounded by the media in Australia and come under enormous pressure back home, added that there was no room for complacency and it had been made clear to the players. “I don’t think it will happen, just sort of coasting through this game and seeing what happens,” he said. “This is a huge game for us … it’s going to take all 11 of us to go out there and get on the right side of the result like we managed to do last week.

The tourists go into the clash today at the Sydney Cricket Ground buoyed by a four-wicket win inside two days at the previous Test in Melbourne. It snapped a 15-year winless streak in Australia but came too late to save the series with the hosts retaining the urn by winning in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. Stokes said it was important to keep the momentum going. “This is a big game, purely because we’re walking out there representing England,” he said. “The Ashes, unfortunately for us,

Smith keeps England guessing

Australia’s Steve Smith in action during the recent Ashes Test against England at the Gabba in Brisbane on Dec 7. – REUTERSPIC

Down Under captain bats away retirement talk

AUSTRALIA SKIPPER Steve Smith said yesterday he had no end date to call time on his career, while keeping England guessing on how his team will line up for the fifth and final Ashes Test. With the retirement of Usman Khawaja after the Sydney Test today and Nathan Lyon out injured, Smith will be the oldest player in the Australian line-up alongside Scott Boland. Asked if he would still be playing at the next Ashes in England in 2027, the 36-year-old was non-committal, but said he was enjoying his cricket. “I’ve said it for a while, I’m taking it day-by-day, series-by-series, and we’ll see where things land,” said Smith, who has played 122 Tests and scored more than 10,000 runs. “I feel like I’m doing alright at the moment, I’m enjoying it, I’m contrib uting, and having fun. So there’s no real end date for me. “I think with obviously Usman dropping off, he’s one of our experi enced players, so it probably wouldn’t be ideal if him and I went out this week, for instance,” he

Sydney, Smith said everything was on the table with another look at the wicket required. “Could play a couple of all roun ders, could play a spinner, could play no spinner,” he said. “We’ll figure it out once we see the surface and see which way we want to go about it.” Australia lead the five-Test series 3-1 after eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane, before an 82-run vic tory in Adelaide ensured they retained the famous urn. England bounced back to clinch their first Test victory in Australia for 15 years at Melbourne, winning by four wickets inside two days. While the Ashes are secure, Smith said there was still plenty of motiva tion with World Test Championship points at stake. “With the World Test champion ship, every game is important,” he said. “Hopefully we can turn it around here, win this series 4-1, and now, more importantly, just win a Test in the World Test championship cycle.” – AFP

added. “So no, I want to keep play ing.” Khawaja, 39, announced his retire ment on Friday, culminating a career where it began after making his debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2011, also against England. Smith paid tribute to his long-time teammate, but refused to be drawn on the Pakistan-born player’s claims of “racial stereotyping” during his career. “I’m not going into the mind of Usman Khawaja,” he said. Khawaja claimed the way he was treated by media and former players after he played golf before the first Test in Perth and could not bat because of back spasms amounted to “the same racial stereotypes” he had always dealt with. “I think he’s always prepared the same way, he’s worked hard and I think some of the stuff around him getting injured when he played golf the day before the game, that was unfair,” said Smith. “He’s done that for 15 years and had a pretty good career.” In terms of Australia’s team for