High praise for Amajita players after AFCON U20 qualification

Mdaka was speaking after overseeing Amajita qualifying for the AFCON, beating Angola 1-0 in the COSAFA U20 tournament in Mozambique yesterday.

In a hard-fought game, Amajita scored through Lee Ashene, and they have set up a final against Zambia tomorrow, the young Chipolopolo beat Zimbabwe in the other semifinal.

It’s for the first time in five years that Amajita are heading to the AFCON, and Mdaka has high praise for the players.

"Angola has played their group stage games, they never lost, we played we never lost and everybody wanted to qualify for CAF, I think that was one of the encouraging aspects and serious challenges but I'm happy for the boys,” Mdaka said.

“Compliments, the boys did very well, they showed character, we fought where it wanted us to fight, out of tactics, physically, mentally, our boys were so good and I really credit them."

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Amajita have qualified for the final in style, scoring the greatest number of goals (14) in four matches in this tournament and they are yet to concede, with four clean sheets.

Mdaka says these clean sheets have been key in this qualification.

"When you play in a tournament, one of the keys is not to concede, so it gives you the courage, the positive attitude to say if we can't concede, can't concede at the back, you get one chance, you score then you win the game. If you concede it's a problem. We've been seeing this and honestly, it was quite a difficult game," he added.

SAFA Technical Director Walter Steenbok’s biggest goal heading to this tournament was to qualify, win the championship, and play according to the national philosophy.