South Africa continued to accumulate tournament this summer, with an encouraging 1-1 against Paraguay on Wednesday evening.
South Americans who were missing several top players from Europe, based took the lead after 37 minutes by Marcelo Estigarribia, but Bafana Bafana hit back to equalize through Siphiwe Tshabalala 19 minutes from time.
The result was a clear improvement in South Africa as it did against a team of qualified also for the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and from humble Namibia drab 1-1 against ranked on March 3.
Paraguay is being dominated for most of the first 30 minutes and took the lead after 8 minutes before the break when Estigarribia woke.
But after Carlos Alberto Parreira’s team went into the game after the break and deservedly equalized when Tshabalala has hit home. South Africans came into this game, the back end of an intensive training camp for three weeks in Brazil, where they played a total of seven matches against local clubs.
“I was the lion’s cage here and the team showed a lot of character coming back, I’m proud of them.” Parreira said. “In the first half of Paraguay was better team in the second half we took control of the process, so it is a fair result. Brazil and Argentina came here and fought, so I did well in this match.”
They will be following another training camp in Germany, in April, before the return season in South Africa in May to finalize preparations for the World Cup against Mexico opened in Johannesburg on 11 June. France and Uruguay are the two other teams in Group South Africa.