{"id":484342,"date":"2026-06-18T21:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484342\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T21:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:50:11","slug":"fifa-world-cup-south-africa-hold-czech-republic-as-teboho-mokoena-strikes-late-in-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484342\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: South Africa hold Czech Republic as Teboho Mokoena strikes late in Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa next face South Korea, while the Czech Republic take on the daunting task of playing Mexico in the Estadio Azteca.<\/p>\n

Both sides started with disappointing performances and defeats on the World Cup\u2019s opening day, but the Czechs quickly set about making amends.<\/p>\n

Patrik Schick is the biggest name in a Czech side lacking the star quality of previous generations but the Bayer Leverkusen forward missed a glorious chance inside the first minute when he planted a header wide.<\/p>\n

Miroslav Koubek\u2019s men only had to wait another five minutes to take the lead.<\/p>\n

Adam Hlozek\u2019s cross was classily cushioned by Alexandr Sojka into the path of Sadilek, who calmly stroked the ball past Ronwen Williams.<\/p>\n

Now in their fourth attempt, South Africa have never progressed beyond the group stage at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Hugo Broos has overseen an upturn in Bafana Bafana\u2019s fortunes since taking charge five years ago.<\/p>\n

The 2010 hosts had not qualified for the World Cup since 2002 but finished third at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n

Fifa World Cup schedule and results<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifa World Cup standings<\/a><\/p>\n

Their return to the global stage has exposed a lack of quality, though, particularly in forward areas.<\/p>\n

The Czechs were left to rue not making more of their chances to kill the game off early in the second half.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Darida took too long to get his shot off with a big chance before Lukas Cerv\u2019s long-range effort was tipped over by Williams.<\/p>\n

There were thousands of empty seats on show at the futuristic home of the NFL\u2019s Atlanta Falcons, but those that were in attendance loudly booed the mid-half hydration breaks in an enclosed and air-conditioned stadium.<\/p>\n

The majority of the crowd were backing South Africa and finally had something to cheer seven minutes from time.<\/p>\n

Thapelo Maseko\u2019s shot hit the arm of the unfortunate Pavel Sulc and referee Tori Penso, part of an all-female officiating team, pointed to the spot.<\/p>\n

Mokoena confidently drilled home the spot-kick for his nation\u2019s first World Cup goal in 16 years.<\/p>\n

They came close to a second five minutes later when Matej Kovar saved from Relebohile Mofokeng.<\/p>\n

But both sides had to settle for a point that could yet prove vital come the end of Thursday\u2019s final Group A games.<\/p>\n

Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa next face South Korea, while the Czech Republic take on the daunting task of playing Mexico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[190,806,17480,10542,83487,36862,28162,78,4507,243141,111,139,69,23269,1240,213,19063,243140,377],"class_list":["post-484342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-as","tag-atlanta","tag-cup","tag-czech","tag-fifa","tag-hold","tag-in","tag-late","tag-mokoena","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-republic","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-strikes","tag-teboho","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}