Amajita face must-win COSAFA U20 test vs Namibia

The South African men’s under-17 national team lost 2-0 to Malawi in their opening game of the CAF Zonal U20 qualifying tournament at the Somhlolo Stadium in eSwatini on Saturday.

The result placed coach Vela Khumalo’s team on the back foot in the tournament, which consists of three groups made up of four teams each, from which only the group winners and the best second-placed teams will make it to the semi-finals before the two finalists qualify to Cairo next year.

Following their 2-0 loss to Malawi on Saturday, Khumalo, who also doubles up as Kaizer Chiefs’ reserve team head coach, lamented the missed chances against the young Flames – coach by former Chiefs assistant coach Patrick Mabedi.

“If it’s not your day, it’s not your day. I mean, Malawi came at us only three times and they scored two goals on transitions. If you don’t win games like these, it becomes more frustrating for the boys and me as well,” said the coach.

“But this is a game that we need to quickly forget about and focus on our next two matches [against Namibia and Comoros].”

Amajita also missed a penalty in the second half as Mduduzi Shabalala saw his spot-kick saved.

The next match at Mavuso Stadium will kick-off at 15:30 this afternoon before the South Africans close their round-robin fixtures against Comoros on Wednesday at 15:30.

Background – Poor Preparations

The current Amajita side is mostly made up of players who were part of the U17 team that Khumalo led to the COSAFA title two years ago to qualify for an AFCON tournament that ultimately never took place in Morocco due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

But if the team fails to qualify for the U20 AFCON, the SAFA leadership could be equally to blame as the current crop of players had not been together since that COSAFA tournament, and had only 10 days of preparation before the ongoing tournament in eSwatini.

The team had also not played a single international friendly match prior to the Zonal qualifying tournament, which is among the same concerns Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has been complaining about for the past few months.

Amongst the issues he had raised were that junior national teams cannot be coached by part-time coaches and that teams must have regular camps and not only meet on the eve of tournaments.

These sentiments were also shared by a FIFA programme called Increasing Global Competitiveness, which was aimed at the analysis of the talent development ecosystem in South Africa.