WATCH: Mkhalele lauds Amajita’s mental strength
Amajita came back from 1-0 down to making it 1-1 at the end, however, Mkhalele admitted that they played against a strong side.
Helman Mkhalele, coach of the South Africa U-20 team. Pic: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
It might have not been the result that he hoped for, but Amajita interim coach Helman Mkhalele is satisfied with the mental strength of his charges after they played to a 1-1 draw with Madagascar in their second Group B at the Cosafa Under-20 Cup in Zambia this past weekend.
Click HERE to watch Mkhalele reflects on Amajita’s performance
Amajita came back from 1-0 down to making it 1-1 at the end, however, Mkhalele admitted that they played against a strong side.
“We played against a very good team, Madagascar. They gave us a few challenges with the physicality they brought into the game and they were hard running. I am happy with the performance of the boys even though I’m not entirely satisfied with the result. Because we created a number of goal-scoring chances and I believe we could have won the game because their goalkeeper played very well to make sure that we don’t score a goal,” said the Amajita mentor.
“But also, I was happy with the response of the boys by coming from 1-0 down to show some resilience and we were able to create a number of chances. It shows that they are growing in terms of their mental strength. We just need to make sure we minimise our mistakes because Madagascar scored through our mistake in poor defending, conceding a free-kick.”
Amajita has now collected four points in the group and need only a victory against Lesotho on Tuesday to make it to the semi-finals.
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