The moment South Africa had been waiting for for decades has finally arrived. The “Bafana Bafana” defeated South Korea 1-0 in the third match of Group A at the World Cup and celebrated a historic advancement to the tournament’s knockout stage, breaking the curse that had haunted them in all their previous World Cup appearances.
South Africa had come close to making the big leap in 2002, when it was eliminated by Paraguay in a nail-biter, while in 2010, it became the first host nation to be eliminated from the World Cup in the group stage. In 2026, however, it was different. The Africans came out determined to make history, and they succeeded.
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With their victory over South Korea, they reached four points, while the Asians were left with three! It’s been a… wild ride in the group stage, since in the 80th minute of their second match against the Czech Republic, they were trailing and had one foot out of the next round!
Highlights
The starting lineups:
South Africa (Hugo Broos): Williams, Mudo, Okon, Embokazi, Montiba, Sithole, Bata, Maseko (75′ Reiners), Mofokeng (81′ Adams), Apolis (62′ Moremi), Makgopa.
South Korea (Hong Mi-yu Bo): Seung-Yu, Beom-Lee, Min-Jae (66′ Jin-Seob), Hyuk-Lee, Seol, Paik (46′ Jin-Yu), Hwang, Tae-Seok (46′ Gastrop), Kang In Lee, Hee-chan (46′ Heung-min), Hyun-joo Oh (66′ Ge-sung).
Group 1 Standings
*photo source: AP
