This is a record of South Africa's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.[1]
South Africa have appeared in the finals of the FIFA World Cup on three occasion's in 1998, 2002, and 2010.
Although South Africa has made three appearances in the World Cup, they have not made it past the first round. The team's first attempt to qualify as for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The team finished second in their group, behind Nigeria, who went on to play at the World Cup. Their first appearance was in France 1998, six years after they had been readmitted to the global football family. Despite a 3–0 drubbing to France in their opening game, they went on to draw against Denmark and Saudi Arabia, the team finished third and thus exited the tournament. Korea/Japan 2002 was expected to be an opportunity for Bafana Bafana to step up to the next level but they were eliminated at the group stage despite drawing to Paraguay and beating Slovenia 1–0 for their first-ever World Cup win. The team finished third in their group, losing out to Paraguay on goal difference. The team failed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup after finishing third in their qualifying group. Ghana won the group and progressed to the tournament, while Congo DR finished ahead of South Africa on head to head results. During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they beat France 2–1 and drew 1–1 to Mexico, but lost 0–3 to Uruguay. They lost out on progression to the round of 16, on goal difference, for their second World Cup in a row.[2][3][4]
FIFA World Cup record
South Africa at 1998 FIFA World Cup
Head coach: 
Philippe Troussier
- Andre Arendse (#22) was injured before the start of the tournament. His replacement, Paul Evans, was also injured shortly after arriving as a replacement. Simon Gopane was then called up, and sat on the bench for the last two matches.
France vs South Africa
South Africa vs Denmark
Benni McCarthy scored South Africa's first ever goal in the World Cup when he received the ball on the edge of the penalty box before shooting low left footed through the legs of Peter Schmeichel to level the match.
South Africa vs Saudi Arabia
South Africa at 2002 FIFA World Cup
Head coach: Jomo Sono
Paraguay vs South Africa
South Africa vs Slovenia
Siyabonga Nomvethe got the only goal of the game in the 4th minute. A free kick from Quinton Fortune on the left came to Nomvethe and although he mistimed his header, the ball cannoned into the net off his thigh.
South Africa vs Spain
South Africa at 2010 FIFA World Cup
Coach: 
Carlos Alberto Parreira
South Africa vs Mexico
South Africa vs Mexico was the opening match of the World Cup, held on 11 June 2010.[6] It was described as an "enthralling" and "pulsating" match. South Africa opened the scoring in the 55th minute after Siphiwe Tshabalala scored off a pass through Mexico's defence by Teko Modise. Mexico's captain Rafael Márquez equalised following a corner kick in the 79th minute.[7] In the final minutes of the match, Katlego Mphela almost scored a winning goal for South Africa, but his shot bounced off the post.[6]
Tshabalala was named as the man of the match. South Africa's coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira called the result "fair", while Mexico's coach Javier Aguirre stated "we could have won, we could have lost".[8]
South Africa vs Uruguay
France vs South Africa
References
- ↑ 2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage (PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007.
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External links
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1 Considered a successor team by FIFA, or have competed under another name(s). 2 Have been member of multiple confederations. 3 Team and national federation no longer exist.
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1930 to
1962
1966
1970 to
1990
1994
2002
2006
2010
2018
Denmark
Saudi Arabia
18', 90+3' (pen.)
Spain
Paraguay
Slovenia
