South Africa head coach Hugo Broos said his team "gave an answer to all those big mouths" after beating South Korea 1-0 to make the World Cup 2026 knockout stages.

After starting their campaign with a 2-0 reverse to co-hosts Mexico, many had written off South Africa's chances of making the last 32.

But they responded with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against the Czech Republic, then found a way past South Korea thanks to Thapelo Maseko's second-half strike at Estadio Monterrey.

They consequently make the knockout rounds for the first time, becoming the seventh African nation to do so, winning despite maintaining just 31.5 per cent of the possession in the victory, their lowest possession percentage in any World Cup match.

Speaking after his side's historic win, Belgian Broos said: "I'm very proud of the performance of my team and I think we gave an answer to all those big mouths of the last weeks that thought that we had to change something.

"We just did what we did. We just did what I wanted to do and this is the result.

"I said it already in the past that probably it will be one of the last games of my career and when you can end a career like I had in this way, I think everybody or every coach dreams of it."

Bafana Bafana will now face co-hosts Canada in Los Angeles in the last 32 on Sunday.

"I just know that the players will be ready again and try to achieve the third round,” said Broos.

"It should be even more historic. But those players are chasing those things. Those players want to prove to everyone and to show that they are a good team. So we will see next Sunday if we can go further."

South Korea are now relying on earning one of the eight spots set aside for the best third-placed teams, and face an anxious wait to see if they have made it.

Head coach Hong Myung-bo made the bold decision to start the game with Son Heung-min on the bench.

Son had started 12 consecutive World Cup matches for South Korea prior to the match against South Africa. He came on as a substitute at half-time and his 13 World Cup matches played trail only Hong (16) and Park Ji-sung (14) for most in his country's history.

Explaining why he did not start Son, Hong explained: "We thought that Son would be better placed [to make an impact] when the opponents were losing their energy, not when they had a lot of energy. 

"And when there were more spaces to exploit between the opponents' defensive line, that's when we wanted Son to be at his strongest – when the opponents were a bit weaker.

"In terms of the process and preparing for this game, and how we would play on the field, that is something I put much thought into.

"But I had a strategy in mind. Whenever such a bad result happens, everyone has their own opinion. The result is really the responsibility of the head coach. Ultimately, it comes down to my hands.

"I guess I made the wrong decisions and that was the reason we had a bad result. Nothing more, nothing less."