Minute 89 - Mexico's keeper again looks bad as South Africa hits the post. 3 minutes of extra time.

Minute 78 - Mexico equalizes. Marquez. 3 Mexican players were open. Monumental defensive breakdown for South Africa. El Tri looks like it will escape disaster.

Minute 54 - Fantastic goal by South Africa. Golazo! Completely against the run of play. That's association football for you.

The tragic news that Nelson Mandela's great-granddaughter died in an auto accident last night has put a damper on the opening game of the World Cup in South Africa. Mandela's highly anticipated pre-game appearance of course will not take place now.

The show must go on. South Africa will play Mexico in the opening game. I expect Mexico to win the game.

Live blog below the fold.

Bad start to my live blog as I missed the starting lineups. But I stole this from another site: "defender Matthew Booth, SA's only white player and a fan favorite, will begin the tournament as a substitute. Captain Aaron Mokoena will anchor the defense, with many hopes for offense resting on the feet of forward Siphiwe Thabalala and midfielder Steven Pienaar, who is the team’s best player. Twenty-two-year old Itumeleng Khune gets the start in goal." "On the other side of the ball, Mexico begins with Giovani Dos Santos and Guillermo Franco up front instead of Javier Hernandez. Defender Rafael Marquez, is likely to start attacks with captain Gerardo Torrado holding down the midfield. Veteran Oscar Perez, who’s been hot of late, gets the nod in goal over Guillermo Ochoa."

Mexico off to a strong start looking dangerous from the first minute.

Risky challenge by the South African left back. Then a dangerous corner chance.

Judging from the first 15 minutes, South Africa can't win and it will take a ton of luck to manage a draw.

Home cooking on that obvious dive from the South African player. Dangerous free kick. But skied over the top.

Sheesh, a yellow card for that? The officiating is clearly going to be South Africa friendly. They just seem to have no chance of benefitting from it.

South Africa just looks terrible frankly.

SA has a decent buildup but no skill at the end. The Mexican keeper looks shaky though.

At 26 minutes, Mexico looks the better team by far but their level of play is going down, sloppy in the back and not as threatening up front. A goal from SA would absolutely shock but increasingly s goal by Mexico will surprise.

Just a terrible game so far.

Franco for Mexico point blank -- can't finish. Made a nice play to control the ball but then should have done more with it imo. The TV commentators disagreed.

Vela with a nice shot, bounces off SA defender who saves a goal as the SA keeper was beaten.

Home cooking. A Mexican goal is ruled off on a terrible call.

Franco just over the top.

Mexican finishing is just bad right now.

South Africa looked slightly threatening for a moment at minute 41, but not really.

Nexican keeper looks Reeaaal shaky.

Great chance for SA at minute 43 off a great cross. Mexcian keeper again looks bad.

1 minute of extra time. Now halftime.

South Africa simply is not very good. But Mexico looks less and less impressive as time moves on.

In particular, Mexico's keeper looked very very shaky.

An awful half of soccer.

2nd Half.

South Africa made a change though I missed what it was.

Nice cross from SA at minute 48. They look a bit better now.

Minute 59, a rocket from dos Santos stopped by a great save by the SA keeper.

Mexico is 20 minutes away from World Cup disaster. A draw with South Africa would have been bad enough -- a loss is simply devastating.

South Africa will not beat anyone else in this tournament. Mexico would basically be dead after today if the result holds.

Can Javier Hernandez save the day?

A little over 15 minutes of regular time left.