South Africa set off for World Cup without assistant coach after visa woes

[p]The charter flight departed Johannesburg ‌following a frantic 24 hours after the squad was ‌originally scheduled to leave on Sunday, but were held back by ‌a delay in obtaining visas in what was described ‌as an administrative bungle by the South African Football Association (SAFA).[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mkhalele-helman/8IKle8Tn/"]Mkhalele[/a], a former international winger who played 66 times for Bafana Bafana, including at ‌their World Cup debut in France in 1998, ⁠will have to follow ‌later after his visa application was initially denied.[/p][p][b]"They (the US Consulate General in ​Johannesburg) refused the visa, but gave no reasons. It is very difficult to deal with the process ​where you get no information," [/b]SAFA president Danny Jordaan told the South African Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.[/p][p][b]"We don’t know (why it ⁠was denied), we are ​clutching in the dark, but we hope the matter will be resolved (soon). All of the players are (on the flight) and 99% of the technical staff."[/b][/p][embed guid="c6027f35-96a9-456c-8d03-ebde91f0cccd" url="https://x.com/BafanaBafana/status/2061465988143448532?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/south-africa/W2ijYvlr/"]South Africa[/a] are due to play [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/jamaica/CWmDb3zj/"]Jamaica[/a] in ‌a friendly on Friday before taking on [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/mexico/O6iHcNkd/"]Mexico[/a] in the showpiece opening match in Mexico City.[/p][p][b]"Now we are very happy that we can go to Mexico,"[/b] South Africa coach Hugo Broos said. [b]"The past days have been a little bit stressful with all the problems we had, but those problems are behind us now and we can focus on what's coming.[/b][/p][p][b]"These 10 days go very fast, once we get there we ‌will start working, focusing on the first game against Mexico, ​so time will pass very quickly. I think everybody ‌is looking forward to starting the World Cup."[/b][/p][p]South Africa are in Group A and will face the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/czech-republic/6LHwBDGU/"]Czech Republic[/a] in Atlanta on June 18 and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/south-korea/K6Gs7P6G/"]South Korea[/a] in Monterrey, Mexico six days later.[/p][p]They are appearing at their fourth ⁠World Cup finals and looking ⁠to advance from the ‌group stage for the first time.[/p]