ATLANTA, June 16 (Reuters) - Defeat in their opening Group A games leaves the Czech Republic and South Africa playing catch-up when they meet in Atlanta on Thursday, and both sides need a vastly improved performance in order to keep their World Cup hopes alive.
South Africa had the privilege of playing in the World Cup opener, but in a game in which they had two players sent off, they fell to a 2-0 loss to co-hosts Mexico.
The Czechs, meanwhile, stuck to their route-one, pragmatic style, relying on set-pieces to create any danger against South Korea. They took the lead through Ladislav Krejci's header from a throw-in, but went on to lose 2-1.
South Africa are at the World Cup for the first time since hosting it in 2010 and have never progressed beyond the group stage in three previous appearances. Against Mexico, there was little to suggest that statistic is about to change.
Manager Hugo Broos will be without the suspended Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane, and may decide to revert to his usual four at the back rather than the five he used against Mexico.
South Africa will hope that plenty of lessons were learned from that bruising defeat.
"Now that we've seen the level of this competition, we'll come back stronger," captain and keeper Ronwen Williams said.
"We'll prepare with even greater intensity and continue working hard. There are still two massive games left for us."
The Czechs have waited even longer for their World Cup chance than South Africa, with their last appearance coming 20 years ago.
Their final group game will be against Mexico at the Azteca stadium, so this second match will be the Czech Republic's main target to get three points on the board to give themselves a real chance of remaining in the tournament.
"Against South Africa, we have to get it right," defender Jaroslav Zeleny said.
"Mexico will probably be a tougher challenge afterwards, so we have to give everything in the match against South Africa and absolutely make sure we win it."
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing byh Ed Osmond)
