Confederations Cup Match Report: South Africa 2 – 0 New Zealand

Image from Associated Press

The match report as seen from a South African football fan perspective...

Tonight Bafana Bafana made me proud to be a South African Soccer supporter. After all the grief we (South African soccer fans) have to put up with, it was great to see such a positive performance from the National Team.

Tonight the team played like South Africa. The flair, the skill, the passion and pace sorely lacking in the previous game against Iraq were there in abundance tonight. The final score may have been 2-0 in favour of Bafana but it could easily have been 4-0 or 5-0 if Masegho had his scoring boots on tonight and were it not for a string of great saves from the New Zealand keeper Moss.

Santana came into this match under a lot of pressure but he will have silenced his critics after this performance. Bafana were buzzing in attack tonight, 20 shots at goal verifies this. But it wasn't just the shots on target which impressed me. It was the way the team played with total belief in their abilities, little flicks and tricks were the order of the night as the likes of Pienaar and Modise ran riot. Tshepo Masilele was an absolute joy to watch down the left flank and he will surely have attracted attention from scouts at the tournament with a man of the match display.

Bernard Parker was the star...{Read on to find out how the match progressed}



This report is featured on SA Football Fans.
Also available from here are the video highlights of the match.