Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has highlighted the physical demands of modern football and stressed that South Africa needs to improve in key areas such as “power and speed”.

South Africa made history at the World Cup after they reached the Round of 32 for the first time ever in the country’s history.

However, Bafana’s journey in the global showpiece came to an end after they suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Canada in the last 32 encounter in Los Angeles.

The Belgian tactician believes these attributes were decisive at the highest level and says developing them will be crucial if Bafana are to compete consistently against elite opposition on the global stage.

“It was a difficult game but I knew beforehand [it would be so] because I analysed the opponent,” Broos told FIFA.

“They have two important [traits] in power and speed. We hoped we had an answer for that but it was not always the fact.

“You saw situations in the game that we could not follow and the duels, man against man, we lost sometimes or most of the time. We have to work on power and speed in South Africa.

“I don’t have complaints about the mentality but I think we can look back on this tournament with happiness because we got to the second round. I don’t think anybody expected that before the tournament.

“It is sore now because we wanted to win. It’s a disappointment, it’s very quiet in the dressing room at the moment.

“But on the other side we have to be honest, we did very well for our first time in the World Cup after 26 years. We achieved the second round.”