South African skipper Aaron Mokoena has said that his team’s opening World Cup game against Mexico was a tough one, as Javier Aguirre’s men 'were absolutely difficult team to play against'.
Mokoena said that he was pleased with his team’s spirited display to achieve a 1-1 draw against higher ranked opposition.
“I’m still saying I want to see how far they [Mexico] are going to get in this tournament. They pressed from every angle, everywhere on the pitch. They didn’t allow us to play. We had to make sure that we didn’t slip up and that we defended as a team,” Sport24 quoted Mokoena, as saying.
“We did that. In the second half we created a lot of chances. Unfortunately we couldn't convert, but we just want to take positives out of this match,” he added.
Mokoena further said that he was pleased with man-of-the match Siphiwe Tshabalala’s brilliant form.
“I’m not surprised about ‘Shabba’. He scored a fantastic goal, didn’t he? He scored a cracker so he deserved to be man of the match,” Mokoena said.
“All the boys were fantastic, we gave it our all, but it's good to have Shabba as goalscorer and man of the match,” he added.
