JOHANNESBURG — South Africa delivered on its promise to the sporting world Friday, staging a glorious kickoff to the 2010 World Cup — the first global sporting event to be staged on African soil.

And 55 minutes into the proceedings, 25-year-old Siphewe Tshabalala, who plays for nearby Soweto’s Kaizer Chiefs rather than one of the Premier League’s elites, scored the goal that snapped what to that point had been a scoreless game with Mexico holding sway.

South Africa’s national team, known as Bafana Bafana, went on to play Mexico to a 1-1 draw — an outcome that would be considered an upset under normal circumstances in terms of the two teams’ soccer pedigree and World Cup history.

But this was no ordinary circumstance. Nor was it an ordinary day or place.

The tournament’s opening match came off without a hitch at Soccer City, the massive soccer arena on the Soweto outskirts that was built in 1989 and overhauled at a cost of $310 million for the occasion, its terracotta outer shell designed to evoke a traditional African cooking pot.

And Bafana Bafana had a powerful force in its corner: The passion of its devoted national following.

After a scoreless first half in which South Africa was soundly dominated at both ends of the field, Bafana Bafana came out a changed squad in the second half. And in short order, a swift kick of the left foot by Tshabalala changed the tenor entirely.
South Africans erupted with joy. And suddenly it was Mexico that was on the defensive.

Mexico pulled even at the 79-minute mark on a long pass that Rafael Marquez, lurking just as the edge of the goalkeeper’s box, deftly settled and smacked just past Kuhne’s right knee.

The score knotted at 1, officials tacked on three minutes of stoppage time. But neither team could break the deadlock.

Regardless of outcome, the match fulfilled the dreams of a nation all too familiar with a world of doubters.
Jago News