A goal five minutes from time and against the run of play earned the United States a 1-0 win over hard working Bafana Bafana in the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge at a packed Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night.

The only goal of the match was scored by 17-year-old US substitute Juan Agudelo, on his debut, in the 85th minute.

It was Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane’s first defeat in four matches in charge and the first time his side had conceded a goal since he replaced Carlos Alberto Parreira after the World Cup in August.

The countries met for the third time and Bafana have yet to score a goal against the US.

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SAFA are keeping the lid on who will succeed Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira – even though the Brazilian has disclosed that the next man to lead the national team has already been decided. Parreira says that an announcement will be made soon and that “it is a very good appointment.”

Parreira bowed out of his $200 000-a-month job after Bafana’s elimination from the 2010 Soccer World Cup in which they drew with Mexico 1-1, lost to eventual Group A table-toppers Uruguay 3-0, but rebounded to beat a woeful French side 2-1.

According to the KickOff website, SAFA have always stated that the new Bafana Bafana coach will be a South African and that preference would be given to Parreira’s long-standing assistant Pitso Mosimane who also occupied that position during the tenure of former Bafana coach Joel Santana.

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French coach Raymond Domenech refused to shake Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s hand after their final Group match yesterday.

Parreira said an assistant coach for France told him that Domenech had refused to shake his hand because Parreira once offended the French team by saying they shouldn’t have qualified for the World Cup. Parreira said he doesn’t remember insulting France. He called Domenech’s refusal “very lamentable.”

Check out the video on Sport24.co.za here.

South Africa beat a disjointed French team for the first time in history 2 – 1 yesterday, but unfortunately it was not good enough to qualify for the knockout stages of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Uruguay, who beat Mexico 1-0, finished top of the group with seven points for a place in the last 16 with the Mexicans, who edged out South Africa on goal difference. The hosts were third on four points with hapless France finishing last on one.

South Africa became the first World Cup hosts to fail to survive the group stage but at least restored some pride.

“I am proud of the boys. They made this country proud. They proved that they have made progress,” said their upbeat Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

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Uruguay striker Diego Forlan scored twice on Wednesday to spoil South Africa’s World Cup party by beating them 3 – 0 and dealing a heavy blow to their aspirations to reach the knock-out stages.

A 24th minute strike and then a controversial 80th minute penalty from Forlan, which saw home keeper Itumeleng Khune sent off after he was ruled to have brought down Luis Suarez, did the damage.

A last-minute header from Alvaro Pereira rubbed in the defeat and sent the despondent home support at the Loftus Versfeld rushing to the exits.

Impressive Uruguay are now in a strong position on four points from two games while South Africa have just a point.

The defeat was the worst for a host nation since Mexico lost 4-1 at home to Italy in the 1970 quarterfinal and there was a good deal of Italian style about the way Uruguay went about clinically and patiently dissecting their opponents.

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With 98 days to go before the World Cup tournament kicks off in South Africa, Bafana Bafana still looks like a lost team.

This was evident during their 1-1 draw with Namibia in an international friendly at World Cup venue, Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban last night. Rudolf Bester scored for the visitors while Katlego Mphela netted for Bafana. Bafana’s performance during the encounter showed that there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The warning signs are there that Bafana might bomb out of the tournament in the group stages of the World Cup if they don’t rectify their game. Bafana took the game to their opponents, but that lasted only five minutes as they quickly took their feet off the pedal.

Unaware that Bester was behind him, casual Bafana defender Siyabonga Sangweni nearly gave away a goal in the eighth minute, but the Namibian striker, who earns his living at Maritzburg United, failed to beat keeper Itumeleng Khune. There were moments when Bafana tried to string together some neat passes that were mostly instigated by Bafana captain Teko Modise, but still those yielded nothing. Modise would lay off the passes for either Racing Genk right back Anele Ngcongca to surge forward, or, he would locate Lance Davids, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Lebohang Mokoena.

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Bafana Bafana lost 3 – 0 to Iceland on Tuesday night, bringing the South African team’s tally to eight games lost out of nine.

This game had a great deal riding on it from Bafana coach Joel Santana’s perspective, with his side being closely watched and his job on the line if results did not turn around drastically.

In the early stages of the match Macbeth Sibaya had a good shot on goal from distance, but despite an awkward bounce the goalkeeper collected the ball.

The stadium was virtually empty, with the players on the pitch more audible than the few supporters in the crowd on a very cold night in Iceland. The South Africans had a desperate look about them, with every counter attack and scoring opportunity having extra pressure attached to it after so many bad results in the last few months.

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