Bafana Bafana winger Thapelo Maseko has called for his teammates to up the tempo as they look to bounce back from a 2-0 loss to Mexico in their second Group A game of the FIFA World Cup against Czechia in Atlanta on Thursday.

The Czechia national team is staying in downtown Fort Worth during the tournament.

Mexico are now considered the favorites in the group after today's result and will play the remainder of the group stage on home soil, leaving South Korea and Czechia potentially battling it out for that second qualification spot.

We'll also have the 7/5 TO SCORE ANYTIME but with 11 of his 26 goals for club and country this season with his head, including three of his five goals in World Cup qualifying, that bet is an interesting extra angle.

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was his usual self at their training base at Universidad del Futbol in Pachuca, Mexico as they wrapped up preparations for the 2026 Fifa World Cup match against Czechia in Atlanta Bafana go into their second Group A match (6pm SA time) under pressure after they lost the opening game of the tournament 2-0 to Mexico last week,

Why Czechia changed its FIFA World Cup name from Czech Republic originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. Czechia begins its World Cup campaign on Thursday night as part of Group A for the 2026 edition of the tournament.

We caught up with team Czechia on Monday as they were training in Mansfield, which is their Bbase camp for the FIFA World Cup. The team is getting ready to play South Africa on Thursday. Their third match will be against Mexico.