Eish! Nigeria beat us on the beach
29 September 2006
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele was jumping for joy, eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba was screaming wildly, Durban City Manager Mike Sutcliffe was hugging everybody.
The reason for their joy was the same as the rest of the 2 500 crowd packed into the stadium for South Africa's final pool match in the Africa qualifier for the 2006 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup taking place in Durban - the host team had just pulled back from a 6-1 deficit to take Thursday's match into extra time.
But South African football's nemesis, Nigeria, struck again as Iloabuchi Agu slammed the ball home with the first kick of extra time to send South Africa out of the tournament.
Nigeria triumphed 7-6 and South Africa lost their second match by a single goal, but the heartbreak was made even more painful by the action that preceded extra time.
With seven minutes left to play, South Africa were all but out of the tournament, but Mark Williams added four more goals
to the one he scored in the second period and then Fani Shange netted an equaliser to set off the wild - but premature - celebrations.
The result was a disaster for South Africa's hopes of getting to the World Cup finals in Rio later this year, but proved what a phenomenal sport beach soccer is. There can be few other activities where a team scores a goal a minute to pull back from 6-1 down.
Beach soccer is as much about the spectacle as about the sport, and Thursday's match made for a great piece of theatre - just ask Messers Ndebele, Olaba and Sutcliffe ... and the 2 500 other spectators who lived through another South African sporting cliff-hanger.
While the final of the tournament takes place on Saturday, Friday's semi-final matches will determine the two African qualifiers for Rio.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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