By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
HIGHLY RATED Czechia nick named The Representatives on Thursday at the Atlanta Stadium in USA were shocked with a 1-1 draw at the 2nd group A game by the youthful energy of Bafana Bafana (The Boys) of South Africa at the 2026 world cup tournament.
Czech ranked 40 in the world against South Africa ranked 60 made thousands of football betting fans throughout the world lose their sure banker as the thought of football slaughter of the Africans perished in Atlanta.
The proverb that morning shows the day blinked when Slavia Prague 27 year old Midfielder, Michael Sadilek scored a left footer from the center of the box off an Alexandr Sojka assist in the 6th minute just a minute after Ladislav Krejei header from a corner kick missed target.
South Africa played with the resilient African characteristic in the 2nd half beating Czech in all departments forcing a penalty which 29y old Mamelodi Sundown Midfielder, Teboho Mokoeba with tears in the eyes and prayers to God of Heaven to give South Africa this day scored when it bounced off the body of the Czech Goalkeeper into the net in the 83rd minute for the much coveted equalizer resoundingly celebrated by South Africa.
Czechs were a shadow of themselves making 12-13 shots at goal of which 3-5 were on target. My record stats taking showed that 11 of the 17 South African shots came from outside the box they surely need more tactics to shoot even inside the six yard box and await any ricochet to score.
South Africa dominated the ball possession 61-39% and stringed 541-300 passes and both teams had 5-5 corner kicks advantage meaning Czechs were lucky to escape humiliation.
There were 11-9 fouls committed by the Czechs resulting in 1-2 yellow cards. South Africa missed the services of their star midfield dynamo, Themba Zwane who got a three match ban from a straight red card against Mexico meaning he is off the group stages and Sithole who also saw red in that match.
South Africa have a must win match against the Asian Tigers, South Korea on 25th June same day Mexico will play Czech in the last group game. First round saw South Africa lose 0-2 to Mexico and Czech bow 1-2 to South Korea. We await the Mexico vs South Korea at 2am Friday morning.
Mexico temporarily tops group A with 3 points scoring 2 goals and conceding none; South Korea is 2nd also with 3 points scoring 2 goals and conceding one; Czech is 3rd with 1 point scoring 2 goals and conceding 3 while South Africa is 4th also with 1 point scoring 1 goal and conceding 2.
Both teams came to the Atlanta pitch with over 70 year old coaches. Czech had Miroslav Koubek who is 74 years 290 days and South Africa had Hugo Broos who is also 74 years 69 days old.
Czech were in their 10th appearances coming as Czechosovekia until they became a Republic in 2006. They were world cup Runners up in 1934 and 1962 but when the identity change came they have never gone past the group stages.
South Africa in their 4th appearances are always pushed out at the group stages in 1998, 2002 and 2010.
#2026WorldCup #Eufa ##CAF
#FACR #SAFA #NFF
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