South Africa’s soccer team, Bafana Bafana and Jamaica played to a one-all draw in Pachuca, Mexico, in Bafana Bafana\u2019s final warm-up match ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 later this week.<\/p>\n
The match against the Reggae Boyz was a hastily arranged fixture but crucial to Bafana Bafana\u2019s final phase of preparation for the global spectacle.<\/p>\n
The only other warm-up match for the World Cup group was an uninspiring goalless draw against Nicaragua before the team\u2019s departure for Mexico.<\/p>\n
The result against Jamaica, a nation ranked 71st in the world, would not have instilled the confidence the team was seeking after four matches without a win.<\/p>\n
Lyle Foster opened Bafana Bafana\u2019s account in the first half after Jamaica\u2019s goalkeeper casually handed Bafana possession.<\/p>\n
A mad scramble in SA\u2019s in-goal area allowed Dwayne Atkinson to equalise in the second half.<\/p>\n
Now Mexico awaits in the World Cup opener in Mexico City on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The co-hosts are on an eight-match unbeaten streak, with six wins and two draws and a recent 5-1 thumping of Serbia, ranked 42nd in the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABC–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14530,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-36436","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mexico awaits in the World Cup opener in Mexico City on Thursday.","published_date":"","news_description":"Mexico awaits in the World Cup opener in Mexico City on Thursday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36437,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36436\/revisions\/36437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}