Despite dictating the tempo for large spells of the opening match of the tournament, South Africa failed to convert their dominance into goals. The youthful but strong South African side created many chances, but a lack of composure in front of goal saw them go to waste, especially in the first half, where the game should have been put to bed.

The early momentum belonged to Vela Khumalo’s charges, who came close to opening the scoring. The captain and former Bloemfontein Celtic striker Victor Letsoalo rattled the crossbar from close range, and Kabelo Dlamini couldn’t capitalise on the rebound as Mozambique survived a scare.

Victor Letsoalo. Photo: Morgan Piek

South Africa’s goalkeeper Thakasani Mbanjwa made an important early save to deny the visitors. The first half ended goalless, but Bafana were by far the better of the two sides and unlucky not to be in the lead. Those missed opportunities would come back to haunt them in the second stanza.

Mozambique had a goal in the 53rd minute disallowed by VAR after a deflection off Puso Dithejane. While Bafana breathed a sigh of relief, it should have been taken as a sign of things to come.

Eventually, the Mambas broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute. Mbanjwa did well to save the initial effort from Keyns Abdala, but the rebound fell kindly to Antonio Sumbane, who slotted home what turned out to be the winner. A quick VAR check confirmed the goal.

Oscar Cherene. Photo: Morgan Piek

A desperate South Africa upped the tempo, which had been lacking for most of the second half, and started creating chances again.

There was late drama when Bafana were awarded a penalty with just seven minutes remaining in regulation time. But after a very lengthy VAR review, the referee overturned the decision, much to the disappointment of both the South African team and the fairly strong midweek crowd.

Bafana kept pushing deep into stoppage time, but it was to no avail as their neighbours claimed three valuable points in the tough Group A.

After the opening day, South Africa find themselves at the bottom of the group. Mauritius and Zimbabwe played to a goalless draw in the second match on Wednesday at the Toyota Stadium, each earning a point, while Bafana are yet to get off the mark.

Following the match, South Africa’s coach Khumalo lamented the wasted opportunities but vowed the team would take it on the chin and move on.

“It’s not the best way to start the tournament. Performance-wise, I thought we played well and stuck to our game plan. The question now is what we need to improve on, so we’ll go back to training and work on converting our chances,” he said.

“In the first half, we had plenty of entries into the box and the final third, but we couldn’t score. We were rushing things when we got into the box. At half-time, we addressed this with the players. We also warned them that Mozambique’s only real chance would be to catch us in transition – and that’s exactly what happened.

“You know, when you’re a possession-based team, it’s easy to get carried away. We need to stay focused, be tactically disciplined, and take our chances. We created enough to win, but couldn’t finish.

“Performance-wise, we’ll go far – today was just a setback.”

Looking ahead, on Saturday at 12:00, Mozambique will face Mauritius at Toyota Stadium, while South Africa take on Zimbabwe at 15:00.

On Thursday, Lesotho will face Malawi at 15:00, followed by Angola versus Namibia at 18:00 – both matches will also be played at the Toyota Stadium.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg