Katlego Mphela maintained his scoring rate of a goal every two games for South Africa as they came from behind to draw 1-1 with Ivory Coast on Saturday in the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
Top-ranked African national side Ivory Coast took a fortunate lead after 36 minutes in the Indian Ocean city of Port Elizabeth when defender Siboniso Gaxa headed into his net after a miscommunication with goalkeeper Moneeb Josephs.
Striker Mphela made it 22 goals from 44 international appearances by leveling eight minutes after halftime before a 22,500 crowd as his free-kick from 30m drifted over the wall and into the corner of the net past motionless Boubacar Barry.
Photo: AFP
Bafana Bafana and the Elephants had chances to win a lively, combative friendly as they displayed good ball retention and were always seeking opportunities to attack in partly cloudy conditions.
It was the fifth match since 1994 between nations ranked first and eighth in Africa and four have been drawn, with South Africa winning the other narrowly.
The result meant Ivory Coast surrendered a perfect record this year having beaten Benin twice, Rwanda and Burundi in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and Mali and Israel in friendlies on neutral territory.
“We need someone to score goals,” lamented South Africa coach and former national team striker Pitso Mosimane. “We created four good chances, but did not take any of them.”
Ivory Coast coach Francois Zahoui said: “It was a very exciting game, with both sides prepared to attack. Now we must study the video tape and learn from it ahead of the Cup of Nations.”
Mosimane and his players went some way toward redeeming themselves after a Africa Cup of Nations qualifying debacle against Sierra Leone last month which saw them content to draw a game they actually needed to win.
The coach believed that goal-difference determined the final places on the table and when he heard rivals Niger were losing heavily in Egypt, made substitutions to ensure a goalless draw, while some players feigned injury to waste time.
Captain Siphiwe Tshabalala and his teammates celebrated by dancing after the final whistle and only later did they discover that the head-to-head rule applied and Niger had qualified for the tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in January.
While Ivory Coast are preparing for Africa Cup of Nations Group B fixtures against Angola, Burkina Faso and Sudan in January, South Africa must prepare for World Cup qualifiers with Botswana, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia or Somalia.
The Nelson Mandela Challenge has been staged annually bar one year since the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, with Bafana Bafana winning seven matches, losing seven and drawing three.
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