Bafana must adapt to sweltering conditions in Monterrey, says Broos

Bafana Bafana and South Korea will possibly have another natural opponent to contend with in their must-win final 2026 Fifa World Cup Group A clash at Estadio Monterrey on Wednesday (7pm Monterrey time, Thursday 3am SA time).

It is intensely hot and humid in the area and conditions are hovering around 33°C during the day, and above 28°C around the night kickoff time, something Bafana were not exposed to at their high-altitude base in Pachuca and South Korea in Guadalajara.

Bafana coach Hugo Broos said his players, who arrived in the city on Monday, will have to acclimatise.

“Weather conditions are special. It is very hot here,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

“Will that be an advantage? I don’t know and we will see during the game. It is very difficult to adapt to these conditions. You need more time than one or two days.

“We should have been here for two weeks, then you can say we have adapted. When I was a player, I always played a bad game in this type of weather because I couldn’t adapt to the heat.

“Let’s see tomorrow during the game and maybe because we are Africans we will adapt more easily. But it is for both teams and we will see who adapts the best.

“Maybe the weather conditions will play an important role but we are motivated and we know what we have to do. That is to win and maybe that will make things a bit easier than for South Korea.”

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