South Africa and Czech Republic revive brief but meaningful rivalry

The two sides meet in the second Group A match of the 2026 World Cup in Atlanta on Thursday, both requiring a victory after they suffered defeats in their opening games against Mexico and South Korea respectively.

Each team will see this as a prime opportunity to resurrect their campaigns, but both appeared vulnerable in their initial outings.

Their sole previous encounter was at the 1997 Confederations Cup, a competition that resulted in Clive Barker being dismissed despite having guided the team to the World Cup the following year.

South Africa were captained by the late Sizwe Motaung, even though Neil Tovey, Shoes Moshoeu and Doctor Khumalo were also in the squad.

The Czechs took the lead twice but, on each occasion, Bafana fought back to level the score, with their second equaliser coming from current assistant coach Helman Mkhalele.

Vladimír Šmicer, then playing for Lens but later joining Liverpool, gave the Czechs the advantage, but Brendan Augustine equalised for South Africa with a header. He would famously be sent home from the World Cup six months later following an alleged night out.

However, just a minute after that goal, Šmicer netted again for his second, giving the European side a half-time lead.

The score remained that way until five minutes from the end, when Mkhalele emerged with another equaliser, unleashing a powerful strike from 25 yards that flew into the top corner. This occurred after Jiří Němec was sent off for the Czechs three minutes earlier.

Bafana then went on to lose 1-0 to the United Arab Emirates and 4-3 to Uruguay, results that cost Barker his job as SAFA panicked ahead of their World Cup debut.

They subsequently appointed Philippe Troussier, a move that turned out to be a disaster from beginning to end.

South Africa’s only other link with Czech football is a tenuous one, as referee Radek Prihoda officiated a 1-0 friendly loss to Poland in 2012.

The teams:

Czech Republic: Pavel Srníček; Michal Horňák, Zdeněk Svoboda, Karel Rada, Petr Vlček; Pavel Nedvěd, Jiří Němec, Radek Bejbl, Edvard Lasota; Pavel Kuka (Radek Slončík 89’), Vladimír Šmicer (Karel Poborský 84’). Coach: Dušan Uhrin.

South Africa: Andre Arendse, Sizwe Motaung, Willem Jackson, Mark Fish, Neil Tovey, John Moshoeu, Helman Mkhalele, Doctor Khumalo (Dumisa Ngobe 37’), John Moeti, Phil Masinga, Brendan Augustine (Mark Williams 73’). Coach: Clive Barker.