Solly Luvhengo takes blame for Bantwana thrashing
Luvhengo takes blame for Bantwana thrashing
The South African Under-17 Women's National Team (Bantwana) head coach Solly Luvhengo says he is taking responsibility for the team's performance during their match against Germany at the Dwight Yorke Stadium on Wednesday.
Bantwana lost 10-1 to a rampant German side. This was in their second match of the Fifa Under-17 Women's World Cup.
Luvhengo did not mince words, saying he took full responsibility for the big loss.
"I know that people back home stayed up late to watch their national team play in the World Cup and we made serious errors and that makes me feel I need to apologise to the people of South Africa.
"The biggest mistake we made was to try and open up the match, and also attempt to match them all the way. In hindsight that was not the best decision for that match. We played a side that was tactically superior to us.
"Initially I wanted to play a compact match and try to catch them on the counter-attack but I didn't follow my instincts and we got punished. I want to be the first to admit that we played the wrong tactics.
"When the team wins people congratulate the coach and now that we have lost I should take full responsibility for it. We played as though we had never seen Germany play, hence we lost by such a big margin. But we have all learnt our lesson, and we will leave this tournament a lot wiser," said Luvhengo.
Bantwana take on Mexico in their third and final match of the tournament on Sunday at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad.
"We obviously would like to end our participation in the tournament on a high note so a win is what we are focusing on.
"The match against Germany is behind us now, we are back at training preparing for the final clash against Mexico and we would really love to do very well against them. Our objective now is to at least leave the tournament with three points and we are working hard to achieve that," added Luvhengo.
Source - Kick off.com
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