Pretoria - Bafana Bafana's plan to progress to the next stage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup took a blow on Thursday night, following Mexico's 2-nil win over France at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
After playing to a 1-all draw in their opening match against Mexico on 11 June at Soccer City, the host nation was massacred 3-nil by Uruguay at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Wednesday.
South African fans would have hoped that the Mexico and France encounter had ended in a goalless draw. But, that was not the case, and for the national squad to go through to the next round, they need nothing short of a miracle.
Uruguay is leading Group A with four points and three goals, followed by the El Tri, also with four points and three goals.
In third place, is France with one point from their goalless draw against Uruguay and Bafana Bafana also with one point.
Bafana are now expected to pull out all the stops during their final Group A match against France in Bloemfontein's Vodacom Park Stadium on 22 June.
Both Mexico and Uruguay have one foot in the next round and they only need a point to proceed to the last 16.
Last night, the El Tri showed that they were committed to pave their way to the next round.
Even though no goal was scored in the first 45 minutes, Giovani dos Santos, who was a marvel to watch, hit the post a few minutes into play even though the ball was ruled off-side.
Five minutes before half-time, Dos Santos beat Patrice Evra in the penalty box, but he wasted the opportunity by shooting wide.
In the second-half, the French looked bright as they created more goal-scoring opportunities, but their efforts proved fruitless as they failed to find the back of the net.
It was in the 64th minute when substitute Javier Hernandez received a wonderful pass from Rafael Marquez and made a perfect run into the ball-watching French defence, beating goal keeper Hugo Lloris to score the first goal for his side.
Credit should go to Hernandez and substitute, Cuauht,moc Blanco, as they were on target to claim Mexico's deserved 2-nil win over France.
When Pablo Barrera's perfect run was stopped by Eric Abidal's sliding challenge in the box, 11 minutes before the final whistle, the referee Khalil Al Ghamdi punished the French by awarding a penalty to Mexico.
Blanco sealed their victory by scoring from the box.
