The two countries kick off the 19th edition of the finals and first ever on the African continent with plenty of expectation on the host nation.
Never in the history of the World Cup has a home team failed to qualify for the second round, with Bafana Bafana, the second-lowest ranked nation in the 2010 tournament behind North Korea, desperate to maintain that trend.
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Although confident, Brazilian coach Parreira expects a difficult opening against Javier Aguirre's men in front of an expected 85,000 crowd. "On Friday, as much as the pressure is big, it's a World Cup game, it's sort of a war," he said.
"Opening games are always difficult, there is lots of pressure, the whole country is involved and you are playing under the eyes of the world.
"We want to have fun, we want to enjoy the game. "I know it's not easy to enjoy the game when you play a team as good as Mexico. They are the most daring team in this World Cup, the way they approach the game."
But the 1994 World Cup-winning coach - he led Brazil to glory that year - is not afraid of the task that awaits his side on matchday one. He continued: "We respect them, but we are not afraid. "They have their way, we have ours and the good thing about Bafana Bafana now is this team has an identity, they are confident and they want to deliver.
"We want to make this country proud and we are going to give hell to any team we play."
After facing the Mexicans, the hosts must still battle former world champions Uruguay and France in their bid to qualify from Group A. On Wednesday, an estimated half a million South Africans took to the streets in all major centres blowing vuvuzelas, sounding their car horns and showing their support for the nation.
It was the sort of party atmosphere associated with winning a tournament rather than kicking one off, and Parreira said: "Yes, we were expecting to have two days of calmness and all focus on the game. But also, I can understand.
"In this country football has been sleeping for many years, then suddenly there was a ray of hope with a good performance of the team, the good preparation, the World Cup coming here for the first time and then we had to understand the feelings of the people.
"It's important that this will not contaminate us, in a good sense that is, because we like what we saw. Off course you have to like this kind of support."
Parreira, who heads into the game with his 12-match unbeaten run intact, also revealed he will field an unchanged line-up from the one that took on Denmark in their last warm-up match. It means that Tsepo Masilela, widely expected to start, loses out to Lucas Thwala at left-back, while Steven Pienaar will lead a five-man midfield with Katlego Mphela playing as a lone striker.
Mexico coach Javier Aguirre is confident his side can gatecrash South Africa's party. The eyes of the world are on Johannesburg where football's global spectacle is set to get underway.
The Mexicans are feeling bullish about their tournament chances and Aguirre knows the importance of overcoming the first hurdle.
"Mexico is doing well, we feel very confident, we've worked very hard, we are highly motivated and we are convinced we can do well on Friday on the field," he said.
"So we feel that Friday's going to be a great day for Mexico. We've been focusing on this game since December when we were chosen to play in the opening match.
"We're really excited and happy about it because millions of spectators are going to be watching us all over the world. We really want to do well and win the match."
El Tri have a solid record in World Cups having reached the last 16 in the last four tournaments, while they were quarter-finalists on home soil in 1970 and 1986. But their coach stopped short of predicting how far they could go this time around. He said: "Mexico's aim is to win the match on Friday, that's our short-term aim. "This is a very balanced group, very equal group and I don't think there are any favourites." Aguirre also insisted his side will not be daunted by South Africa`s show of support. "My team has come here to play football. We haven't come here to make any friends or to do any sightseeing," he added. end
Source: DSG
