Soccer

South Africa Vs. Mexico World Cup 2010 Preview: The Bafana Bafana Get Things Started On Home Soil

South Africa makes history on Friday when World Cup 2010 kicks off in Johannesburg. The Bafana Bafana take on Mexico in the first major international sporting event staged on African soil.

by Richard Farley

Jun 11, 2010, 1:08 PM UTC

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Group A play: South Africa vs. Mexico, 10 a.m. EDT, Friday

Soccer fans are blessed. The sport goes year round, with enough variation between the club season and international game to make the idea of monotony completely foreign to the footballing world. There is no off-season for a soccer fan, potentially one of the reasons why soccer fans seems as devoted to their sport as their favorite players, clubs, or countries.

But that blessing is part of a trade-off, a Faustian bargain that comes due when you see Super Bowls, Final Fours, NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs contested annually. Soccer’s marque event takes place only once every four years. While the game has Champions League finals and its confederation championships, those events are waged under the subtle shadow of the World Cup.

On Friday, that shadow recedes. Four years of patient waiting will end when two lines of eleven bundled nerves are led onto the Soccer City pitch, wrapped in kits that will seem remarkably bright, in front of 91,000 people whose murmured anticipation will shiver necks, water eyes, and steal breath. And in those moments just before kickoff, when each team's players are sprayed across the pitch, shifting back-and-forth from their left to their right in those final, fearful moments before a whistle wipes their minds, we will think about why the 2010 World Cup means more to South Africa than it has to any previous host.

South Africa has been subjected to a scrutiny that no other host nation has had to endure. Only during the last few months have critics finally moved beyond the idea that South Africa would be incapable of hosting the finals. The stories dwelling on security concerns have waned. Our RSS feeds are no longer inundated with headline hyperbole highlighting every potential empty seat. It has been a long time (five months) since anybody suggested relocating the event, but after years of media speculation that South Africa could not pull-off an event of this magnitude, Friday’s opening whistle will be the most direct “told you so” in World Cup history.

Friday’s crowd will express a different sentiment. As the match unfolds amidst vuvuzela horns emboldening the Bafana Bafana, South Africa will begin a month long celebration marking the draw of a new era in the nation’s history. As of Friday, South Africa will be a nation capable of hosting the world’s premier sporting event. Africa is capable of hosting the world’s premier sporting event, and while we’ve had to wait four years for that fact to come to fruition, the payoff of seeing one of the most significant events in the continent’s history will be our patience’s reward.

No host nation has lost their World Cup opener. Eighteen tournaments. Nineteen hosts. Fourteen winners, and only five draws.

That is the legacy that Mexico faces on Friday. More tangibly, they face a South Africa team that gave tournament co-favorites Brazil and Spain troubles in last year's Confederations Cup. Brazil needed a late Daniel Alves direct kick goal to advance past the Bafana Bafana to the tournament final, while Spain needed extra time to win the third place match.

Those are the high points on South Africa’s record. The low points: They failed to qualify for the African Cup on Nations, the 16-team continental championship. In that way, the Bafana Bafana is probably the weakest host team ever. Going up against a relatively strong Mexican team, the undefeated run of hosts in openers will be pressed like its never been before.

In South Africa's favor, there are a number of Mexican players whose lack of experience make them susceptible to being overcome by the moment. Giovani dos Santos is 21. Carlos Vela is 21. Javier Hernández is 22, and goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, in his first time starting a World Cup, is 24. While all of these players have experience playing in front of six figure crowds, none of them have garnered that experience in a World Cup's context.

South Africa's captain, Portsmouth defender Aaron Mokoena, is aware of the threat the three younger attackers pose, striking a cautious tone when talking about his team's task:

”The Confederations Cup is different to the World Cup.We respect Mexico but it is important to give our all. We need tomorrow’s game badly and we will make it difficult for Mexico.
”Carlos Vela is a fantastic player but it is not about individuals. They play three up front and are quick, intelligent players. It is important that we analyse how they play.
“Tomorrow is about us and about what we want. The moment of truth has arrived. There has been a lot of talk, but now it is about taking the pitch and making the country proud.”

A strong effort from the South Africans should make their countrymen proud, but if the Bafana Bafana are to keep the host nation's streak in tournament openers alive, the keys could be in defensive midfield. Should they start, Kagisho Dikgacoi and MacBeth Sibaya can turn the match in South Africa's favor. If they are able to protect the defense and destroying Mexico's attacks and - getting the ball to the hosts' best weapons, midfielders Steven Pienaar and Teko Modise - South Africa can beat Mexico.

But the most telling aspect of Friday’s match will be the effect of home pitch advantage. Since the World Cup’s groups were drawn last fall, many have speculated as to how much of an advantage the hosts will garner (and whether that is enough to make-up for the talent gap between them and their competition). After Friday’s match, we’ll know how dangerous South Africa can be.