On Wednesday, South Africa suffered a surprising 1-0 defeat to Mozambique’s Mambas in the opening match of the tournament at the Toyota Stadium.

Although South Africa dominated much of the game, Mozambique were more clinical with their chances and found the back of the net twice. However, their first goal was disallowed following a VAR review.

Vela Khumalo. Photo: Morgan Piek

Heading into the tournament, South Africa’s first objective was to keep a clean sheet, but that goal was not achieved. While the defence will need some attention, the issue may lie more with lapses in concentration than the defensive structure itself.

On Saturday, South Africa face Zimbabwe in a must-win Group A clash, and Khumalo told OFM Sport that the team will come back stronger.

“If you go back to our rubric, what we said we wanted to achieve, I think the one target we didn’t meet was conceding a goal,” said Khumalo.

“We said we didn’t want to concede throughout the tournament. That was the plan. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. But, in terms of playing the way we want to play, we didn’t have any problems there.

“Like I said before—and I’ll say it again—we’re going back to training to work on our finishing.

“This really feels like déjà vu from my time with the national U17 side. It was the same issue as we were creating plenty of chances, getting into the box, but just not putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Puso Dithejane. Photo: Morgan Piek

One also has to keep in mind that before the match against Mozambique, South Africa had just two training sessions as a group before the tournament kicked off.

After the first round of matches, South Africa sit at the bottom of Group A. The other match between Mauritius and Zimbabwe ended in a goalless draw, earning both teams a valuable point.

Saturday’s game between South Africa and Zimbabwe will kick off at 15:00 at the Toyota Stadium.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek mvh