Stephen Eustaquio’s golden goal in the second minute of injury time was enough for Canada to beat South Africa 1-0 in Los Angeles, in the first match of the “32” of the World Cup. For the first time, the North American team secured a “ticket” to the “16” of the tournament, where on July 4 they will face the winner of the match between the Netherlands and Morocco!

Canada had complete control of the match in the first 45 minutes. Jesse Marsh’s team missed two huge chances to take the lead with their central defenders, Derek Cornelius and Moise Bobbito, both of which were saved by South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. The 0-0 first half was largely due to the latter!

Canada missed another great opportunity in the 65th minute, with Oluwasegi coming up against Williams, but again the Bafana-Bafana goalkeeper made a saving save. Everything seemed to be a draw, as the South Africans had closed all the corridors and did not allow the Canadians to threaten them.

All this until the 90’+2, when Eustaquio found the space he was looking for and opened the scoring with a powerful right-footed shot, and with this goal, Jesse Mats’ team got their “ticket” to the “16”.

Referee: Joao Pinheiro (Portugal)
Yellow cards: Saliba, Sigur

The compositions:

SOUTH AFRICA (Hugo Bros): Williams, Modiba, Bokazi, Muntaw, Okon, Mokoena, Sithole, Apolis, Mofokeng (46′ Batha), Maseko (86′ Moremi), Makgopa (86′ Rainers) 

CANADA (Jesse Marsh): Crepeau, Johnston, Cornelius, Bobbitt (59′ Luc De Fougerol), Laria, Eustaquio, Millar (70′ Schaffelburg), Saliba (59′ Sigur), David, Oluwaseji (70′ Promise), Buchanan (75′ Davis)