The South African Under-20 side may be a little gutted about losing their opening FIFA Under-20 World Cup against France on Monday night but they will be buoyed by the news that their next Group D opponents New Caledonia, were annihilated 9-1 by the USA on Tuesday.
This means that SA can use the unfancied New Caledonia as their stress ball or even punching bag to recover from Monday’s setback. And revive hopes of advancing to the knockout stage. After the New Caledonia match, Amajita will round up their group against the Americans, who are walking with a spring in their step.
Big loss in Chile
Amajita, as the team is affectionately known, were nailed 2-1 by France in their opening match in Chile. The tournament is taking place in the South American country. The South Africans, coached by the cunning Raymond Mdaka, are representing SA in Chile as African champions after winning this year’s Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations.
Amajita will now need to shift their focus to New Caledonia, who are surely there for the taking.
“I think we have a good account of ourselves. But it’s obviously not the result we were looking for. And if we got a draw, maybe then, we would have somewhat of a comfort to get to second position,” Mdaka told FIFA after the match.
“But we’re left with two games. And we’re going to sort ourselves out and see how best we can approach the next game. We believe we can be able to make a mark inn this tournament.
Costly mistakes
“It was quite a difficult game, they are a good team, but I think we were equal to the task. We made some costly mistakes that allowed France to take all three points. We just could not get going early in the first half. And we struggled to keep up. We could not play our game because it was difficult to settle down,” Mdaka added.
“It’s just that we started a little bit fragile. And also you look at the kind of goals that we conceded, [this] is out of our mistake. It’s a good exercise. It helps us to see how to go forward in the next game.”
