World Cup-bound South Africa beat Scotland 2-0 on Monday in the opening round of Hong Kong's Reunification Cup soccer tournament after Tebogo Makoena scored a goal in the first half and substitute George Koumantarakis added another in injury time.

Blow-by-blow

Turkey, who are also heading for the May 31-June 30 World Cup, take on the Hong Kong League XI later on Monday in the four-team tournament that was first held in 1997 to mark Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule.

In a lackluster match at the Hong Kong Stadium, the South Africans were clearly the better of the two sides.

Makoena scored in the 31st minute after Scottish goalkeeper

Robert Douglas parried a free kick from South African Benedict McCarthy into the path of Makoena, who put it into the net with a close-range, tight-angled shot.

Scoland squandered several scoring chances.

Kevin Kyle, who plays for England's Sunderland team, saw his

shot hit the South African cross bar in the second half.

Koumantarakis, who replaced Sibusiso Zuma in the second half, made sure of his team's victory after latching on to Quinton Fortune's through-ball and drilling a low left-footed shot into the keeper's bottom-left corner.

Scotland's new coach Berti Vogts said his team played better

than in South Korea last week when they were thrashed 4-1 by the

Koreans.

Vogts, a German, said he was satisfied with the performance of his squad.

South African coach Jumo Somo said his players were strong in defence and that he was very happy with their play.

South Africa will meet Turkey on Thursday in the two-day

tournament.

In the World Cup, South Africa will play in the same group as

Spain, Paraguay and Slovenia.

Turkey is in the same group as four-time champions Brazil, China and Costa Rica.

Teams:

South Africa: Hans Vonk, Bradley Carnell, Aaron Mokoena (Cyril Nzama, 60th) McBeth Sibaya, Quinton Fortune (Delron Buckley, 85th), Jabu Pule, Tebogo Makoena, Pierre Issa, Benedict McCarthy, Lucas Radebe, Sibusiso Zuma (George Koumantarakis, 81st).

Scotland: Robert Douglas, Maurice Ross, David Weir, Christian Dailly, Gary Caldwell (Lee Wilkie, 45th), Allan Johnston (James McFadden, 60th), Scot Gemmkill, Scott Dobie (Michael Stewart 85th), Kevin Kyle, Robbie Stockdale (Graham Alexander, 68th), Gareth Williams (Scott Severin, 77th).