The Czech Republic were held 1-1 by South Africa at the World Cup on Thursday which keeps the chances of both teams intact to reach the knock out stages. Michal Sadilek opened the scoring for the Czechs in the sixth minute,set up by Aleksandr Sojka after a long throw in from Vladimir Coufal had caused havoc in the South Africa defence. The equalizer in the 83rd minute came out of the blue, with Teboho Mokoena sending goalkeeper Matej Kovar the wrong way from the penalty spot after a Pavel Sulc handball. Harmless South Africa had been unable to break down the Czech defence and did not register a first effort on target until the 74th minute. The Czechs paid the price for becoming passive soon after their goal. Patrik Schick had wasted a chance before their goal and they only briefly threatened again in the first minutes of the second half when Lukas Cerv was denied by Ronwen Williams and Schick headed into the arms of the keeper on the ensuing corner kick. Both teams have one point after having lost their first games, the Czechs 2-1 against South Korea and South Africa 2-0 against co-hosts Mexico. Mexico play South Korea later on Thursday. The final group matches next week are Czech Republic v Mexico and South Africa v South Korea. The top two from each of the 12 groups reach the round of 32 along with the eight best third place finishers. South Africa have never gone beyond the group stage, the Czechs for the last time in 1990 when they reached the quarterfinals. Thursday's match was officiated by American Tori Penso, the second woman in charge of a men's World Cup game, four years after Stephanie Frappart of France was the referee for Germany v Costa Rica. — dpa
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