Amajita head coach Raymond Mdaka has reacted to his side’s 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup opener saying despite the result the African champions gave a good account of themselves.
Mdaka’s Amajita lost 2-1 to France in Group E in a game that the Europeans dominated but they also missed their own chances. France scored first and the South Africans levelled and managed to keep the score like that until the 79th minute, a result that saw them in third position in the pool ahead of New Caledonia by virtue of goal difference.
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Though proud of his charges, Mdaka bemoaned how the goals were conceded, the mistakes made by his charges while taking comfort in the fact that they still have a chance to redeem themselves.
“But the biggest challenge that I would say was us maybe giving them too much spaces,” said Mdaka.
“You look at the goal that we conceded we gave them space we were not pressing enough, we’re back paddling and not structured. And those are some of the things that happen when you communicate less in the field of play. And even the second goal, obviously, is a question of us giving them space until the opponent can be able to shoot.
“But I think we were well on our defence in terms of the block, realizing that they were penetrating from inside at a later stage we got it right. It’s just unfortunate after getting it right that’s when we conceded the goal. But we also got a number of chances, something that our players need to grow on to say, once you get the chance, when we get an opportunity, we need to finish. The ball by Shakeel [April] should have just passed the teammate to put into the net but it never happened.
“It’s in the name of the game. We learn from mistakes. You learn a lot from the mistakes, but I think we gave a good effort, we gave a good account of ourselves. It’s just that this not how we wanted. We always want to see ourselves getting into the next stage, and had we got maybe a draw, obviously we were in an advantage of maybe thinking of getting to the second round.
“But we got still two games we are going to sort ourselves out.”
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