South Africa were overwhelmed for much of the opening half versus Mexico but grew throughout the match and in the end were unlucky not to start with a win.
The hosts now face Uruguay, who played out a goalless stalemate with France on the first night, and will have taken plenty of heart from their 1-1 draw with the Central Americans.
Rafael Marquez cancelled out Siphiwe Tshabalala’s fantastic long-range strike to earn Javier Aguirre’s men a point but Bafana Bafana have nothing to fear from Uruguay and will once again rely upon the terrific support of the home fans.
With star man Steven Pienaar enduring a fairly quiet match on Friday there should be plenty more to come from South Africa and, given that all the pre-tournament nerves should now behind them, I expect Brazilian manager Carlos Alberto Parreria to be able to mastermind at least a draw to keep their qualification hopes alive.
The football played so far at World Cup has been far from scintillating, plenty of sides have failed to cope with the combination of a light ball and hard pitches, but South Africa are well equipped to deal with the conditions and a three points wouldn’t be the biggest surprise.
Friday’s draw means it is now 13 matches unbeaten for the Group A outsiders but they will have seen nothing from Uruguay in their match with the 1998 champions to suggest that run cannot be extended and, providing Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez can be kept quiet, South Africa will fancy their chances.
I was disappointed with the aforementioned South American strike duo against Les Bleus and, while there’s little doubt that they should be afforded more time and space against the host nation, they will certainly need to raise their game in Pretoria.
A lack of the goals was the feature of the early matches and while this particular clash is unlikely to produce too many, in Katlega Mphela do South Africa possess a genuine threat.
Playing on the counterattack, Perreira relies heavily on Mphela’s pace to cause problems to the opposition and the striker was the width of the post away from giving South Africa a dream start when his injury time effort against Mexico found the left-hand upright.
Having now had time to have a look at each of the sides in action it should become easier to assess their chances going forward and I’d certainly want bigger than the 2.50 available about Uruguay making it four points from a possible six by notching a victory.
Group A looks set to go right to the wire and the hosts remain very much part of the shake-up.
1pt Lay Uruguay (vs. South Africa) @ 2.50 (Betfair)