South Africa U-20 head coach Vela Khumalo says the strongest team didn’t qualify for the finals and luck was not on their side.
Khumalo, who is in charge of the Kaizer Chiefs DStv Diski Challenge squad and Amajita took charge of the tournament and with the challenges of only having the team for less than two weeks and no national team camps prior – the struggles to find cohesion were evident.
Debates wrangled on about his selection of the squad too as eight Amakhosi development products were named in the squad, something that could be justified given the lack of time to prepare for the U20 COSAFA Cup.
It was a nervy group campaign starting from the opening day 2-0 defeat to Malawi and eventually ending with a 2-1 exit in the semi-final against ten-man Mozambique at the regional event in eSwatini.
Failure to reach the final meant no U20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and no FIFA World Cup either as the AFCON serves as a qualification system, which serves a major blow to the development of young talent in the country.
“Congratulations to Mozambique, they came up with a plan and it worked for them. We came up with a plan but unfortunately, we could not convert the chances we created,” he told SAFA.net.
“Luck was not on our side. We tried everything we could but the goals kept eluding us. We are out, we are sad and I feel that the strongest team did not go through.”
“Honestly speaking, luck was not on our side. We did everything that could be done, we stretched them wide, we went with combinations, with wing play, but we could not convert.
“It is the only thing that eluded us. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but we will chin up and take it. My biggest worry is what happens to this talent now, but it is one of those things in football.”
