Appollis adamant ‘Teams wanted to beat Bafana Bafana’ at AFCON! Refuses to point fingers

Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates winger Oswin Appollis has refused to point fingers in the wake of South Africa’s elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), in Morocco.

Hugo Broos’ men were beaten 2-1 by the Indomitable Lions on Sunday to bow out of the biennial competition. Some fans believe the coach made a mistake by tinkering with his winning squad, and questioned some key decisions.

Others feel the blame should be on the players who failed to take their chances in critical moments.

However, the former Polokwane City winger argues it was just a bad day in the office. He has further stated teams were motivated to beat Bafana Bafana, explaining why their matches were tough.

Appollis believes ‘it wasn’t meant to be for us’

We are disappointed, but we will continue working hard. The positive is that it’s not easy to get through the group stages; we managed to do that, but we will continue working hard,” Appollis said in a presser.

“Everything was the same, but I felt like teams wanted to beat South Africa. Today, it just wasn’t meant to be for us. But as I said, we can’t fault anyone in the team. They gave their hundred percent and it just wasn’t meant to be for us.

“As a group, we played, well, we managed to create chances, but it wasn’t meant to be for us,” he concluded.

Appollis is expected to be in the Bafana Bafana squad that will play in the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.