South Africa qualified for the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup for the first time early on Thursday, when Thapelo Maseko scored a second-half goal to give his team a 1-0 win over South Korea, who are still capable of qualifying as one of the best third-placed teams. South Korea's balance is frozen at three points in third place, and it will wait for the completion of the third round matches in the remaining groups, to know its fate and whether it will reach the round of 32 as one of the eight best teams in third place. Maseko shot the ball into the bottom corner of the goal in the 63rd minute, putting South Africa, which will face Canada, one of the three host countries of the tournament, in Los Angeles on June 28, four points behind Mexico, who leads Group A with nine points after its 3-0 win over the Czechs at the same time. As for South Korea, it has three points. South Africa had failed to advance beyond the group stage in its first three World Cup appearances in 1998, 2002 and 2010.