South Africa's First World Cup Beginning

Images by El Universo

Rafael Marquez, Mexican defender for his country's national team, prevented his team from a damaged defeat from South Africa in achieving a dream dreamed, having scored the first goal in its debut of the World Cup. Marquez scored the 1 - 1 equalizer in the Inaugural Match of the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup. The greatest absence in the Opening Ceremony and the Opening match was ex-president Nelson Mandela who couldn't come due to a death of a family member. Mexico Pressured the local team and just by the second minute, they had clear possibilities to score as many as 6 goals, but the excellent performance of South Africa's goalkeeeper Itumeleng Khune soured the party to the Mexicans. little by little, South Africa faced his rival bravely and their offensive was more aggressive, leaving alot more counter attacks to the Mexicans.

Steven Pienaar, South Africa's midfielder, became the center of the team, recuperating many of the balls and assisting many of the centers to their strikers, making the African team more forward in their attacks. Both teams tried many shots on target from a long distance but the "Jabulani" couldn't be inside the net unfortunately. in the 55 minute, Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the first goal of the match and of the tournament, with a crossed shot entering the rival area from the left and leave the reaction to Mexican goalkeeper coldstone. With this goal, the South African team doubled their counter attacks and became more effective than the Mexican team, but then the local team was exposed from Mexico the leading responses of their counter attacks. In the 79 minute, Rafael Marquez beated the local goalkeeper Khune from a clear shot in the left zone from Mexico's captain Gerardo Torrado. The result of this match showed opposite reactions from both South Africa and the Mexican team respectively. With this match, South Africa has been undefeated for 8 months and 13 matches.