SOUTH KOREA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: SOUTH AFRICA HAVE WON THEIR FIRST GAME AT A WORLD CUP WITH A 1-0 WIN OVER SLOVENIA

Record ID: 631434

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: SOUTH AFRICA HAVE WON THEIR FIRST GAME AT A WORLD CUP WITH A 1-0 WIN OVER SLOVENIA
  • Date: 8th June 2002
  • Summary: TAEGU, SOUTH KOREA (JUNE 8, 2002) ( REUTERS) VARIOUS FANS LEAVING STADIUM SOUTH AFRICAN FANS WAVING SOUTH AFRICAN FLAGS AND CHEERING (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICAN FAN SPEAKING "the game was very simple, Slovenia didn't have anything to say about it, so South Africa is the best, we are going for the second round - that' great man!" SOUTH AFRICAN FANS VARIOUS SL
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TAEGU, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7B1T1YA3B0NOZUU8JY4GCHU5S
  • Story Text: South Africa have won their first game at a World Cup finals with a 1-0 win over Slovenia, who became the third side to leave the tournament early after Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.
    South Africa won their first World Cup finals match on Saturday (June 8) through an unintended strike by Siyabonga Nomvethe against Slovenia.
    Nomvethe stooped to head a Quinton Fortune free kick in the fourth minute but the ball struck his thigh instead and flew into the net for the only goal of the match.
    South Africa's 1-0 victory in the group B match in Taegu, South Korea, eliminated Slovenia from the tournament.
    South Africa were excluded from international competition from 1970 to 1991 because of their apartheid racial separation policy. They recorded two draws and a loss in their first World Cup in France four years ago.
    After Saturday's victory they now lie second in the group behind Spain with four points after recovering from a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Paraguay.
    Spain, who have already qualified after winning their first two games, meet the Africans in the final group game next Wednesday (June 12).
    Slovenia, who have been disrupted by a bitter internal dispute between their coach and the team's leading player, lacked both creativity and spirit. They failed to get a single shot on goal in the first half.
    Coach Srecko Katanec, who sent his playmaker Zlatko Zahovic home after the final row in a long-standing feud, was ordered to leave the dugout and sit in the stands for the second half after a series of increasingly angry protests about Argentine referee Angel Sanchez.
    The Slovenian challenge unravelled in South Korea as a long-simmering row between the coach and his only star player, ripped through a side already devastated by a 3-1 hammering by Spain in their first match.
    They tried to patch over the differences but the stern Katanec and the volatile Zahovic could not work together. A tearful Katanec said he would quit after the World Cup and Zahovic was sent home on Thursday (June 6).
    With two losses and no points from two games, Slovenia have no chance of progress to the next round, but Karic promised the team would try to go out with pride in their last group B game against Paraguay on Wednesday (June 13).
    They came to their first World Cup proud of their team spirit and hinting at upsets but Slovenia leave in tatters, divided and possibly without a point.
    Coach Srecko Katanec is revered in the tiny European country for carving a respectable side out of meagre resources and for matching soccer powers such as Yugoslavia and Romania in qualification.
    Achieving a World Cup finals place for their first time since Slovenia emerged from the Yugoslav federation in 1991 seemed the stuff of fiction.
    "The success of our team -- guided by coach Srecko Katanec -- was amazing and almost too good to be true, just like in fairy tales," Slovenian federation President Rudi Zavrl wrote in programme notes before the 1-0 loss to South Africa that effectively ended the dream.
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