SA U17 head coach Duncan Crowie has revealed what went wrong following Amajimbos’ exit from the CAF AFCON tournament currently underway in Algeria.
Amajimbos succumbed to a 5-0 defeat to ruthless Senegal in the AFCON quarterfinal game at Nelson Mandela Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The defeat meant that South Africa’s U17 men’s national team failed to qualify for the 2023 FIFA U17 World Cup set to start from 10 November to 2 December 2023.
“Well, we came up against a very good team, we knew we were coming up against a good team. We knew exactly what was going to happen,” Crowie said in a post-match interview.
“They got really good wing players. Very dangerous on the crosses and that’s how they scored their goals.
“We knew all about it and we could not stop it and that is the disappointing part of it.”
DUNCAN CROWIE FINDS COMFORT IN NELSON MANDELA’S WORDS
Amajimbos mentor reckons this will be an important lesson for his boys from this competition and move on to better themselves.
“The important thing is the learning process. Just like I have mentioned, all of us are disappointed. Like Nelson Mandela said; “when you encounter a situation in your life, know that you either win or learn, and you never lose” [This simply means he never loses the battle, which is a clear resemblance of the sportsman spirit within him], he added.
“The important part is to now sit back and not only for South Africa but for the individual players and well to say, this is what I could have done and this is what I will do next time in a similar situation.”
AMAJIMBOS LOST IT AFTER THE FIRST OWN GOAL
Crowie believes that his charges lost control of the game after conceding the first own goal through Waylon Renecke.
“As far as the game is concerned, I think in the first 30 minutes we had control of the game and they didn’t really have a shot at goal until we scored an own goal,” he explained.
“But it’s not because of the own goal, it came from a cross, and like I mentioned before that’s the disappointing part because we knew all about it, and we failed to stop crosses from coming inside.”
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