South Africa beat South Korea 1-0 last night in Monterrey and became the first Bafana Bafana squad in history to reach the World Cup knockout stage — and I had to actively search to find out it happened.
ESPN confirmed the result. Thapelo Maseko, 22 years old, curled one in at the 63rd minute off a Tshepang Moremi cross. South Korea had 68% possession and Heung-Min Son on the bench and still lost. South Africa, who were given a seven percent chance of advancing before the group stage started, are now in the Round of 32.
Let that sit for a second.
This is a country that wasn’t even allowed to compete in international football for decades due to apartheid sanctions. They’ve been to four World Cups total — 1998, 2002, 2010, and now 2026. In 2010, as the host nation, they became the first host ever eliminated in the group stage. That’s the kind of thing that follows a football program around. The kind of scar that doesn’t heal easy.
https://x.com/BafanaBafana/status/2059696994189521134
This was the squad. The squad that everyone gave a 7% shot. They lost their opener to Mexico while down to nine men — two red cards in that match — then drew Czechia, then ground out this win against a South Korean side that dominated every statistical category that doesn’t have the word “goal” in it.
And then Messi scored again, and that’s all anyone talked about.
I’m not even mad at people for watching Messi. I watch Messi. I watched Messi on my second screen while South Africa was playing on my first screen, which tells you everything about my priorities. But here’s the thing — the 48-team format everyone mocked when FIFA announced it, the one that sports media spent three years calling a cash grab and a dilution of the sport, is literally why this moment exists. Thirty-two teams advance. South Africa got their shot. They took it.
Maseko said after the match: “It is unbelievable, it feels like a dream. They said there was a seven percent chance of us getting out of the group before kick-off. Yet here we are.”
Bro. I’m sitting in my apartment at 1 AM Googling “South Africa World Cup history” like some kind of sports journalist, which I am not, and I’m finding out that this is the first time ever. Four World Cups. Three decades of trying. One historic night in Mexico, and it got three paragraphs below the fold on most sites.
It wasn’t the only history made at this tournament — Scotland’s own historic first got a similar amount of coverage, which is to say, not enough — but South Africa’s path here was different. They fought through more. They got knocked down further. The 2010 thing alone should make this story write itself.
South Africa’s first World Cup knockout ever puts them against Canada on June 28 at SoFi Stadium in LA. Percy Tau, 32, playing his club football at Nam Dinh in Vietnam, is going to walk out at SoFi Stadium in front of however many thousand people with a legitimate shot at the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Messi’s record-breaking World Cup will continue to eat every oxygen molecule in the building.
I just want someone at the bar on Saturday to bring this up without me having to explain it first. That’s all I’m asking.
