Today, Group C, we are proud to present the Republic of South Africa
vs.
Serbia
Don't make the mistake of assuming that just because teams like Serbia, Ukraine, Austria or Russia are just Eastern European Teams that they can be easily handled. These teams are quiet giants. Russia made the Final Four in 2014 and all of these teams are ranked very highly. In fact, a quick look at some of them shows more depth and talent than many traditional western European powers.
Today is our Serbia game. If we can beat them, we should be in. France and us would both have 6 points, the others none. We have a win-and- in game, and if you told me before the WC that we would have a win-and-in game against any team other than France, I would have taken that in a second. If we tie, we will be second (assuming France wins) and we still have an odd shot laters. It’s time to play our game, here against Serbia. I begin controlling this time. It’s a lot of rain. Holy crap! Vilakazi, an MC for me, got the ball, passed to Mphela, and he scored at the 00:16 mark. Dang! Go l’Afrique! Serbia start marching forward, so I move to counter. Whoa. They score a fabulous strike from range in the 6th. 1-1. WHOA! Vilakazi lifts an IFK at goal from
behind the half mark (by about a yard) and lifts it with a ton of zing into the box and Rantie heads it in. Goal in the 14th minute. That thing had pop! Half. Keep it up! One more half of this, and we qualify. I remain countering. Dang. They score. All tied again in the 48th minute. I move to higher tempos, subs, and soon to standard. Win and in, let’s push. They foul one of my wingers in the box in the 89th minute!!! MC Jali sinks it!!! I pull back to counter. And we win!!!!! 3-2. We don’t even have he MOM, but we won the game. That was a good win!
South Africa have made it to the WC 5 times before and always been knocked out of the Group stage, this is the first time, ever, that we’ve qualified.