South Africa head coach Hugo Broos launched a stinging critique of Czechia’s style of play after their 1-1 World Cup group-stage draw at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, accusing the European side of avoiding what he considers “real” football.

South Africa rescued a point late on when midfielder Teboho Mokoena converted a penalty, preserving their hopes of reaching the knockout phase. Yet Broos emerged from the touchline visibly frustrated, arguing his team had tried to construct moves while Czechia relied almost exclusively on physicality and long balls.

Czechia is a physical team and they don’t like to play football or a passing game, Broos told reporters in his postmatch news conference. It’s very straight, and they have the players for it. All the players are tall. So that means that for us it was very difficult with those high balls.

Broos acknowledged that such an approach is legitimate, even if it clashes with his own footballing ideals. This is what Czechia did, and OK, it’s a tactic. I can’t say why this or why that. This is the coach who decides that, and maybe if I should be the coach of Czechia, I should do the same thing, he said.

But he made clear where his preference lies. I think if you like football that you like more the game we played today than the game of Czechia.

Czech head coach Miroslav Koubek declined to escalate the debate when informed of Broos’ remarks. That’s his opinion, Koubek said. He can have that opinion but my opinion is different.

Broos also took aim at the venue itself, despite its reputation as one of the most advanced arenas in world sport. If I can be very honest, this is not a football stadium, he said of the retractable-roof arena, home to both an NFL franchise and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United.

It’s a nice stadium, fantastic stadium. Everything you want, but only the grass is football. All the rest is not, he added, suggesting the enclosed design diluted the intensity of the occasion.

It’s a covered stadium, so yeah, I like to play in an open stadium. I don’t feel really the atmosphere in such a stadium. When you compare it with Azteca, for example, that’s a football stadium.