South Africa kept their FIFA World Cup knockout hopes alive after Teboho Mokoena’s late penalty earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Czechia in a Group A encounter at the Atlanta Stadium on Thursday.
Trailing after Michal Sadilek’s early strike, Bafana Bafana showed resilience and persistence throughout the contest before Mokoena calmly converted from the spot in the 83rd minute to secure their first point of the tournament.
The result leaves both South Africa and Czechia on one point from two matches, with qualification still within reach heading into the final round of group fixtures.
Czechia had made the perfect start after coach Miroslav Koubek demanded a strong response following their opening defeat to South Korea. The Europeans struck inside six minutes when Adam Hlozek’s delivery was cleverly flicked on by Alexandr Sojka, allowing Sadilek to fire past goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
Sadilek’s effort, timed at five minutes and eight seconds, became the fastest goal scored at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, surpassing Felix Nmecha’s strike for Germany against Curaçao.
The two sides created many chances but could not find another goal as they went for the breather with Czechia leading 1-0.
South Africa manager Hugo Broos introduced Relebohile Mofokeng for the second half and, though the 21-year-old duly flickered his genius, a Czechia backline bossed by the impressive Ladislav Krejci appeared set to hold out for victory.
That was until Pavel Sulc was penalised for handball, and Mokoena sent Matej Kovar the wrong way from the spot to make it 1-1.
Mexico and the Republic of Korea are leading the table in Group A with three points each, with the Mexicans ahead on goal difference.
“I’m very proud of my team. This is Bafana Bafana – we love good football, we are aggressive, we create chances. Yes, we made mistakes, but I’m very proud of the performance today. Czechia are powerful and very tall. We did very well. It’s a little bit of a pity that it’s only 1-1, but we have to win the game against the Republic, which will be very difficult too. If we play with the same mentality, it will be possible,” said South Africa coach Hugo Broos after the match.