The last time Alphonso Davies walked on to the turf at SoFi Stadium, he tore his ACL. Fifteen months later, the Bayern Munich left-back returns to the scene of that injury nightmare for Canada's first ever World Cup knockout match – a round of 32 clash against fellow debutants South Africa on Sunday afternoon.
Davies made his first media appearance of the tournament in Los Angeles on Saturday and promised the game would mark his long-awaited return. “Coming back to this stadium, [it’s] like now I get to finish something I started a year ago and really enjoy playing [here],” he said. “The first time I was in this stadium it was beautiful but it was cut short. At the end of the day, that’s football.”
“Alphonso Davies returns to SoFi Stadium after ACL tear as Canada and South Africa meet in their first World Cup knockout matches.”
The 25-year-old described his watching brief throughout Group B as “painful” while Canada struggled without him. His head coach, Jesse Marsch, had used Davies’s fitness as a decoy ahead of their final group game against the Swiss, but the ruse backfired as Canada lost for the first time in the tournament and were sent south to Los Angeles.
Yet Marsch now has not only Davies back but also Moïse Bombito, giving Canada arguably their two best players for the most meaningful phase. “Now that we have Alphonso back and healthy and ready to perform, it’s a big moment for the team,” Marsch said. “It changes the potential of what our team is and what we can do in this tournament.”
For South Africa, too, this match is laden with history. Bafana Bafana are playing their first ever knockout match at a World Cup, a feat that arguably should have come sooner. When the country hosted the tournament in 2010, Siphiwe Tshabalala’s strike against Mexico was lauded as a “goal for all of Africa”, but the team became the first hosts to be eliminated in the group stage, losing on goal difference despite beating France.
The failure to capitalise left domestic football “a little bit dormant”, according to Cape Town-based sports journalist Mark Gleeson. “There was much excitement in the build-up to, and obviously around, 2010, but then it all went a little bit dead, combined with an economic downturn,” he told the BBC World Service. “There are not many sponsors in the domestic game. There’s not a lot of money floating around.”
South Africa finally returned to the World Cup this year after missing the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012, 2017 and 2021. The revival began with the appointment of Hugo Broos, the 74-year-old Belgian who led Cameroon to the 2017 Afcon title and then guided Bafana Bafana to a third-place finish at Afcon 2023 before securing World Cup qualification ahead of Nigeria. Mamelodi Sundowns’ African Champions League triumph in May further boosted the mood.
“The national team qualifying for the World Cup [and] Sundowns winning the African Champions League has been a huge boost for the country,” Gleeson added. “Hopefully this is the start of a new era for South Africa, maybe 16 years too late. This is how things should have been in 2010.”
Broos was criticised for a conservative approach in the opening 2-0 loss to Mexico, a match that saw two South African players sent off. But his team recovered to reach the knockout stage, where Canada stand in their way. With Davies back and South Africa seeking to lay the ghosts of 2010 to rest, the SoFi Stadium stage is set for a moment of destiny.