South Africa 1 Mexico 1: Hosts steady themselves to keep alive knockout hopes

Bafana Bafana were kept on the back foot early on by a Mexico side who dominated possession, but they came out reinvigorated in the second half and led in the 55th minute through Siphiwe Tshabalala's spectacular goal which turned the vuvuzela horn volume to maximum.

They were pegged back by Rafael Marquez's cool strike with 11 minutes to go but Parreira on the whole felt a point kept his side in the hunt to progress.

"The opening game is always a lot of pressure and today was no different," the Brazilian said.

"Most of our team are a home-based team, players who are not used to this big environment and we tried hard to adapt to this ambience but after 15 minutes we started playing our game, putting the ball on the ground.

"We knew this Mexico team was the most daring in the World Cup, they are full of quality. In the second half we made the game more balanced and had chances to even have won it.

"I believe that the ice has been broken. The result was not the one we wanted but it will keep us alive until the last game in the group."

After an entertaining opening ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa failed to make the most of their advantage, much to the disappointment of the 85,000 crowd.

The visitors almost stunned their hosts inside the first 120 seconds, but were thwarted by a last-ditch block by Aaron Mokoena.

It came after Paul Aguilar's cross from the right was not convincingly cleared by goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune and Giovani dos Santos's shot was repelled by the South Africa captain with an empty net gaping.

Steven Pienaar sent South Africa's only early chance – a 25-yard free-kick – disappointingly over, and Efrain Juarez became the first player to be booked at the World Cup for trying to slow down play. Dos Santos again went close when a quick counter-attack resulted in the Galatasaray forward striking a rising shot narrowly wide.

Khune continued to be kept busy and did well to keep out Guillermo Franco after the former West Ham striker controlled well in the area only to see his shot blocked.

Bongani Khumalo then diverted another shot by Dos Santos away for a corner, before there was a lucky offside escape when Khune flapped at a corner – but came so far he played Carlos Vela offside as the Arsenal forward latched on to a flick-on and tapped in.

The home side finally came out of their shell in the closing moments of the half – Mphela failing to connect with Tshabalala's well-floated cross and Kagisho Dikgacoi heading a corner wide.

Lucas Thwala, who was stretched down the left in the opening 45 minutes, was replaced by Tsepo Masilela at half-time as Parreira looked to shore up in defence.

But it was in attack where they prospered, taking the lead through a fine effort from Tshabalala after 55 minutes.

The Kaizer Chiefs midfielder was put through on the left by an excellent ball from Teko Modise and unleashed a powerful cross-goal shot that gave Perez no chance.

Mexican coach Javier Aguirre responded by throwing on Andres Guardado for Aguilar.

It was Dos Santos, though, who continued to torment the home defence and he again drew a fine save from Khune with a strike from the right that was turned away for a corner.

The home side were clearly lifted by the goal and Modise should have doubled the advantage after the hour mark when Mphela's shot was deflected into his path six yards out – but he struck his effort wide.

Veteran Cuauhtemoc Blanco was thrown into the mix in place of Vela, but again it was the home side, through Modise, who engineered a good chance. However, he took too long to pull the trigger.

South Africa paid for the miss when Guardado's cross from the left looped over the head of Mokoena and Marquez took a touch before firing in.

Mphela showed good pace minutes from time when he outpaced Rodriguez, but his shot hit a post.

South Africa: Khune, Gaxa, Mokoena, Khumalo, Thwala (Masilela 45), Tshabalala, Dikgacoi, Letsholonyane, Modise, Pienaar (Parker 83), Mphela. Unused substitutes: Josephs, Ngcongca, Sibaya, Davids, Booth, Nomvethe, Moriri, Sangweni, Walters, Khuboni.

Mexico: Perez, Aguilar (Guardado 56), Rodriguez, Osorio, Salcido, Torrado, Marquez, Juarez, Giovani, Franco (Hernandez 73), Vela (Blanco 69). Unused substitutes: Ochoa, Barrera, Castro, Moreno, Magallon, Torres, Bautista, Medina, Michel.

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan).