In a match that Amajita had to win to qualify for the semi-finals of the eight-team tournament, while also automatically qualifying for the World Cup later this year, it was a defensive error which saw to it that they lost their second match of the tournament.
On the stroke of half-time, goalkeeper Ronwen Williams made a meal of a back pass that landed in the path of Egyptian striker Mohamed Hamdy to lobby over the head of the error-prone keeper in the 45th minute.
This means that the highly rated North Africans and Mali from this group make it through to the next stage and will also be two of the continent’s four representatives in Colombia, with South Africa missing out after qualifying for the last tournament in 2009.
Although South Africa are strong in attack, their Achilles’ heel has been in defence, especially in the goalkeeper department, where there were mistakes in all three of their matches with the preferred choice for the first match against Mali, Tawfeeq Allieproving proving to be costly as the team went down 4-2.
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| South Africa Under 20 team |
The South African coach, Maqsood Chenia, had started the match with a 5-4-1 system against his technically brilliant opponents and in the first half came close to finding a goal with a pinpoint header from striker Lucky Nguzana being tipped over the post by Ahmed Al Shanawy in the Egyptian goal.
In the second half, Hamdy could have found a second shortly before the hour mark until he shot wide of the goal with just Williams to beat, while Mohamed Salah’s attempt at curling the ball also went narrowly past the post.
Amajita began a late surge at finding the two goals they now required to qualify, and came close when captain Philani Khwela rattled the network with a sublime shot on the hour mark with goalkeeper Al Shanawy beaten.
The home team will feel that they were denied a legitimate call for a penalty when winger Jabulani Ncubeni was fouled in the penalty box in the dying moments of the game.
Source -http://Witness.co.za
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