World Cup Group A preview: South Africa v Mexico
Cancel any plans for the next month; the World Cup is finally here.
It’ll all kick off at Johannesburg’s Soccer City when the hosts face Mexico on Friday afternoon, the curtain-raiser to a month-long festival at the first ever African World Cup. There will be a party atmosphere around the South African capital, but one question has largely remained unanswered. Are the hosts actually any good at the game?
The Fifa world rankings suggest otherwise, but seeing as they have Portugal placed in third then the temptation is to ignore them.
Nonetheless they have South Africa in 83rd place, making them the second lowest ranked nation in the tournament. On paper their match with the Mexicans, ranked 17th, would look to be a no contest, but opening matches in the World Cup aren’t played on paper, and they’ve produced some interesting results in the past, particularly for African teams.
Papa Bouba Diop and Senegal shocked France in 2002 and Cameroon beat Argentina in 1990 despite ending the match with nine men.
A win for the Bafana Bafana this time around wouldn’t measure quite so highly on the Richter scale, but would be wildly celebrated in a country that is desperate for their team not to embarrass themselves by becoming the first host nation to fail to qualify for the second round.
If they are to avoid that, then a positive result is surely needed here.
They have the quality to achieve it too, with striker Katlego Mphela heading into the match having scored six goals in his last five internationals, and supported by the likes of Siphiwe Tshabalala and Everton’s Steven Pienaar, the Merseyside club’s player of the year last season.
Soon joining him in the Premier League will be Javier Hernández, the 22-year-old Mexican striker who will sign for Manchester United after the tournament.
Nicknamed “Chicharito” – “the Little Pea” – Hernández could be a big pain for the South African defence along with Arsenal’s Carlos Vela, Tottenham’s Giovani dos Santos and the veteran forward Cuauhtémoc Blanco, with the hosts’ captain Aaron Mokoena required to be on his game to keep them out.
Boss Javier Aguirre has made the Mexicans a tougher proposition to what they were under previous boss Sven-Göran Eriksson, and their firepower will be enough to frighten the South Africans.
But fan power could frighten the Mexicans, and a game that the South African people have been waiting six years for is sure to be an interesting watch.
It was back in 2004 when they were awarded the right to host the tournament, and, pitted in this group alongside Uruguay and France, this may be the hosts’ best chance to win a match.
That will be a tough proposition though, as this is a Mexican side high on quality, style and endeavour.
They’ve been infamously called the “golden generation” back home, but anything less than a positive result here will ensure that that tag quickly disappears.
South Africa have been eagerly waiting for this day, this chance, this moment to come around, and now it’s finally here, they need to avoid stagefright.
That, against this talented group of Mexicans, is easier said than done.
Mark Jones
Tags: