{"id":11045,"date":"2012-06-03T22:40:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T20:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/soccer-mphela-saves-south-africa-from-embarrassing-home-setback\/"},"modified":"2012-06-03T22:40:10","modified_gmt":"2012-06-03T20:40:10","slug":"soccer-mphela-saves-south-africa-from-embarrassing-home-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/soccer-mphela-saves-south-africa-from-embarrassing-home-setback\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer-Mphela saves South Africa from embarrassing home setback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">RUSTENBURG, South Africa, June 3<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Katlego Mphela<br \/>\nscored a late equaliser to save South Africa from an<br \/>\nembarrassing World Cup qualifier defeat at home to Ethiopia on<br \/>\nSunday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mphela cleverly curled a shot wide of the opposing<br \/>\ngoalkeeper in the 77th minute to level the score at 1-1 but<br \/>\nthere will be questions about the future of coach Pitso<br \/>\nMosimane, who had said before the match only a win would do.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were surprised by them,&#8221; said South African captain<br \/>\nSteven Pienaar of opponents 71 places below them in the FIFA<br \/>\nrankings. &#8220;They came with nothing to lose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia, who in four decades of World Cup qualifying had<br \/>\nonly won once away, took the lead just before the half-hour mark<br \/>\nwith a powerful shot from Said Saladin.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>His goal delighted several thousand expatriate Ethiopian<br \/>\nfans, whose cheering dominated a near-empty stadium at<br \/>\nRustenburg.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The decline in South Africa&#8217;s fortunes since hosting the<br \/>\n2010 World Cup, including missing out on qualifying for the 2012<br \/>\nAfrican Nations Cup finals because they misread the rules, meant<br \/>\nonly around 5,000 spectators turned up in contrast to the<br \/>\nfestivities of two years ago.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa failed to qualify for the Nations Cup after<br \/>\nlosing out in a three-way tie at the top of their group because<br \/>\nthey thought goal difference was the deciding factor when, in<br \/>\nfact, it was head-to-head record.\t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing By Alison Wildey)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RUSTENBURG, South Africa, June 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Katlego Mphela scored a late equaliser to save South Africa from an embarrassing World Cup qualifier defeat at home to Ethiopia on Sunday. Mphela cleverly curled a shot wide of the opposing goalkeeper in the 77th minute to level the score at 1-1 but there will be questions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}