Bright lights flash for Bafana’s upset hopes

Bafana Bafana’s pursuit of victory today against Czechia will come with inspiration from what has happened before at the World Cup whenever opposition has been from Europe.

There is another test against a European nation today at midday (18h00 SA time) in Atlanta which Bafana need to win to give their knockout stages qualification hopes a chance.

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Failure to win today will demand that they then take all three points against tricky South Korea.

An avenue of confidence for Bafana today is that their results against European opposition at the World Cup has not been disastrous.

They lost to France then drew with Denmark at the 1998 World Cup

Four years later at the Korea/Japan tournament, they won 1-0 against Slovenia then suffered defeat to Spain which could have been avoided.

Then, with the 2010 World Cup, they won 2-1 against France.

That gives an overall record of two wins, two defeats and one draw suggesting that there is hope for Bafana based on historical results at the tournament against European opponents.

Bafana also didn’t lose their only previous match against Czechia.

This was on December 13, 1997, in a Group B match at the 1997 Confederations Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which ended 2-2.

Former Liverpool midfielder Vladimír Šmicer scored twice for the Czechs while Brendan Augustine and current Bafana assistant coach Helman Mkhalele were on target for Bafana.

That meeting happened after Germany chose to withdraw their participation as 1996 Euro champions paving way for Czechia to take their place as runners-up.

The bookmakers have given Czechia the favourites tag in a tournament which has so far only had Australia and Cote d’Ivoire winning when the odds suggested otherwise.

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The Socceroos got the better of Turkey while the Ivorians overcame Ecuador when the odds were slightly with the South Americans.

So far, from 24 games played in the first round of matches in the group stages, nine have ended in draws.