ATLANTA: The Czech Republic were held to a 1-1 draw by South Africa in the World Cup on Thursday, keeping both teams’ chances of advancing to the knockout stages, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
Michal Sadilek opened the scoring for the Czechs in the sixth minute, set up by Aleksandr Sojka after Vladimir Coufal’s long throw caused chaos in the South African defence.
The equalizer in the 83rd minute came unexpectedly as Teboho Mokoena tricked goalkeeper Matěj Kovář into the opposite direction on a penalty kick after a handball incident by Pavel Šulc.
South Africa failed to break down the Czech defense and did not score any tries until the 74th minute.
The Czech team paid the price for being passive after their goal.
Patrik Schick wasted a chance before the opposition goal and they only posed a slight threat in the first minute of the second half when Lukáš Červ was denied by Ronwen Williams and Schick headed into the goalkeeper’s arms on the ensuing corner.
Both teams have one point after losing their first matches, the Czech Republic 1-2 against South Korea and South Africa 0-2 against hosts Mexico.
Mexico will face South Korea on Thursday, while the final Group A match next week will see the Czech Republic take on Mexico and South Africa meet South Korea.
The top two teams from each of the 12 groups reach the round of 32 along with the eight best third-place finishers.
South Africa have never made it past the group stage while the Czechs last reached the quarter-finals in 1990.
Thursday’s match was officiated by American referee Tori Penso, making it the second men’s World Cup match to be overseen by a woman, four years after France’s Stéphanie Frappart officiated the Germany-Costa Rica game.
— BERNAMA-dpa
