Stoppage time Eustaquio strike breaks South African hearts and sends co-hosts into R16
INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 28: Stephen Eustaquio celebrates a last gasp winner in Los Angeles. Pic: Fran Santiago/Getty
The team with Promise up top just needed patience. To be honest, we all did.
A World Cup which has served up more goals than any before got to the knockout stages in Los Angeles and promptly served up a mostly turgid slugfest. Jessica Alba was in the stands but there was not much glamour out on the field. But in the place where five minutes of fame is enough, an additional five did the trick for Canada.
Jesse Marsch’s side, the first ever World Cup host to play a knockout match on foreign soil, marches onwards to Houston thanks to a gorgeous touch and hit from Stephen Eustaquio two minutes into additional time at Los Angeles Stadium. Eustaquio had handed the captain’s armband over to the returning Alphonso Davies 15 minutes earlier but this was a big moment from a big player. It was also a moment of supreme quality out of keeping with the contest.
Would Canadians care? Not a jot. It left South Africans floored, where so many had been in the early stages.
Why must this tournament be so hydrated? Throw this state and H2O into a search engine and and you’ll be met with headlines such as “California’s water crisis isn’t a drought — it’s bad policy?” and “How do we solve California’s water crisis?” A start may be having a word with the man in charge of the sprinklers at Los Angeles Stadium. After both South Africa and Canada had warmed up, the pitch was doused for a very long time. Once we’d got through the giant flag fandango and got down to business, bodies were going down early and often. FIFA’s justification for the very unloved hydration breaks is a well-watered chestnut but the opening knockout game gave Gianni Infantino something else to hide behind: it was also a boot-change break.
Canada centre-back Derek Cornelius had no need to change his. His problems were not equipment but anatomy. In an opening quarter low on quality and composure Cornelius butchered the one truly glorious opening. Skipper Steph Eustaquio floated a perfect free-kick in to the middle of the box and Cornelius was all alone five yards out, Ronwen Williams’ goal gaping. Cornelius gave it a tame half-glance and it slipped by. Criminal.
Kicking off the first-ever Round of 32 with two teams who’d never been out of a group stage meant this was all unfamiliar. The matinee kick-off and a crowd that had smatterings of Canadian red, lesser pockets of South African green and yellow but mostly a rainbow of nations didn’t help proceedings. Nor did the players. It was mostly sloppy and imprecise. Midfield duo Teboho Mokoena and Yaya Sithole shielded their defence well and Canada’s middle never settled.
Marsch’s men were clearly the better team but butchered a second set-piece before the break when Moise Bombito, making his first World Cup start, saw his header cleared off the line, Cornelius snatched at the rebound and Williams blocked Tajon Buchanan’s follow-up.
Bar an early snap shot from Relebohile Mofokeng, Bafana Bafana offered precious little up front but on Wednesday they’d needed only one half-chance to stun Korea. When referee João Pinheiro waved away what looked a legitimate Canadian penalty shout on half-time, the underdogs’ sense that a repeat may be on the cards grew.
Bombito’s most telling intervention of the half may have been holding Marsch back from Pinheiro when his manager marched towards the referee at the interval.
Even at the halfway point of regulation time, it felt like the kind of game which may require more time. It also felt like the kind of game where one error could decide it. Which would arrive first?
More Canada chances came and went. Oluwaseyi was sent scampering clear shortly after the hydration break but saw his effort tipped up by Williams. David was racing in but bizarrely never threw himself at it and Mbekezeli Mbokazi hooked clear.
On 75 minutes, Marsch finally brought his captain in. It was absurd how instantly Davies lifted the tempo and quality. A minute after his introduction he zipped a ball from the left wing into David, now joined by his namesake Promise. The layoff was perfect and the substitute fired a low shot which whistled by the post.
Still it ebbed and flowed a little. South Africa had a couple of flashes at Max Crepeau’s goal to give Canadians palpitations. But the patience would pay off.
Marsch’s subs made it all happen. Out on the right Sigur fed Jacob Shaffelburg, his whipped cross was initially cleared but only to Eustaquio. His chest control was perfect, the patience to let it take a half bounce so key and the shot whistled beyond Williams. Onwards to Houston, where the winners of Netherlands and Morocco await. A little hydration may be in order first.
Williams; Modiba, Mbokazi, Mudau, Okon; Mokoena, Sithole; Appollis, Mofokeng, Maseko; Makgopa.
Mbatha for Mofokeng (HT).
Crépeau; Johnston, Cornelius, Bombito, Laryea; Buchanan, Eustáquio, Saliba, Millar; Oluwaseyi, J David.
De Fougerolles for Bombito (59), Sigur for Saliba (59), P David for Oluwaseyi (67), Shaffelburg for Millar (67), Davies for Buchanan (75).
João Pinheiro (POR)
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