+ A nervy, disjointed effort from the opening whistle as SOUTH AFRICA was visibly overtaken by the moment, but how can you blame them?

Most German Nationalists, in retrospect, admitted that only after the 2006 World Cup, did they honestly feel they had thrown off the shackles of bastard communism and joined the free world .. .. They were finally able to openly cheer for their country and feel it, 17 years after the Berlin Wall fell! And, now, 16 years after the end of apartheid, South Africa have their chance to unite under one flag with the planet watching!

Early on, MEXICO dominated play with SOUTH AFRICA chasing the ball .. .. MEX whacked 8 shots with 6 of them coming in the box with a lot of free headers .. .. MEX showed their preference for the right-flank as they pumped in 5 crosses, all from the right .. .. But SOUTH AFRICA settled down and organized from the back and were able to negate a MEX CK goal when the backline stepped up as one .. ..

RSA set Soccer City alit when SIPHIWE TSHABALALA got clear into the L/Box and crushed a GOLAZO-BOMB with his L/Foot > U/Right that left OSCAR PEREZ no chance .. .. MEX equalized when the RSA off-side trap fizzled and left RAFAEL MARQUEZ free in the R/Box and he poked it home .. ..

RSA’s nuclear pace began to get behind MEX in the last 22 minutes and easily could have scored the winner .. .. RSA looked better and better as the match went on and will be a hard side to beat .. ..

Mercurial winger from Kaizer Chiefs-RSA looked all-world tonight and scored the first goal of the tournament .. .. Helped settle RSA early by tracking back on defense and then showed his pace, first-touch and passing vision before ramming home his memorable goal past an astonished Perez .. .. The 25YO has been to two African Nations Cup Finals and last year’s Confederations Cup but can also be victim of some serious howlers!

+ Brilliant, textbook defensive effort by URUGUAY who turned in an Italian-like clampdown of ‘Les Poo-Poo’ .. ..

FRANCE started brightly (10 first-half crosses) despite URUGUAY basically playing 7 at the back, but as the first half went on URU snuffed out the major threats thanks to DIEGO GODIN .. .. DIEGO FORLAN & LUIS SUAREZ were both looking for each other up front and looked really dangerous when they attacked – Much more dangerous than FRA who left ANELKA alone up front .. ..

In the second half, URU continued their textbook defensive match and weakened just slightly late when down to 10 men and FRA pushed forward begging for an equalizer .. .. Soon to be NY’er, THEIRRY HENRY came on as a sub to become France’s first-ever player to play in 4 World Cups .. ..

Of URU’s six shots, five came from the lively FORLAN while Les Poo-Poo stumbled into 14 shots, but only 4 of them came from inside the box .. .. URUGUAY may not score many goals this tournament, but their Forlan/Suarez counterattack is going to knock someone out of the second round!

Rarely have I ever seen such a classy, complete effort from a center-back as the Villareal-ESP stopper did tonight .. .. He didn’t allow NICOLAS ANELKA a single quality sniff at goal, was strong in the air and was 100% on all of his slide-tackles .. .. Read the game well to charge down some dangerous shots and even brought the ball out of the back a couple of times .. .. The 24YO is a former national champion swimmer who still holds several national records .. ..

WORLD CUP WINNERS BY CONTINENT

Where they play their club futbol .. ..

EUROPE > 0

ASIA > 0

AMERICAS > 0

AFRICA > 0

OCEANA > 0

Every player who appears for a winning side is counted .. ..

PBP PANDO! or GORDO? SIDE OF THE TOURNAMENT Gordo

GK: None

D: Diego GODIN (URU)

M: Siphiwe TSHABALALA (RSA)

F: None

Bench: none