COSAFA Championship joy for SA girls, heartbreak for Amajimbos
COSAFA Championship produced mixed fortunes for South Africa girls and boys’ under-17 football teams on the final day on Sunday in Malawi.
The girls’ team, Bantwana, beat Zambia 4-2 to win the championship at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
It took barely a minute for the South African girls to go ahead through Sinazo Ntshota’s goal.
Lucy Kajiya levelled matters for Zambia in the 16th minute before her team-mate Jessy Zulu extended the lead via a long- range powerful shot five minutes later.
South Africa pulled level when Nobahle Mdelwa scored on the half-hour mark for the two teams to go to break at par.
Zambia came back from break with new ideas which saw Zangose Zulu restoring the lead with a neat finish in the 50th minute.
HOW SOUTH AFRICA BROKE THE RESISTANCE OF ZAMBIA
However, Bantwana had a final say on the proceedings as they added two goals through Ntshota and Adriella Mibe in the 66th and 84th minutes.
In a post-match interview, Bantwana coach Victoria Mbatha said the final panned out the way she expected.
WHAT BANTWANA COACH VICTORIA MBATHA TOLD THE PLAYERS
“We worked hard for this in South Africa before we came here. The strategy was that we told the girls to get the balls from our half, get into their half, play and press them,” Mbatha said.
“I told them to show character and that football is not for sissies because Zambia are strong so we also had to be strong.”
There was more reward for South African girls as their first-choice goalkeeper Casey Gordon won the Golden Glove.
To put the icing on the cake, Sinazo Nthota received the Player of the Tournament accolade.
ALL DID NOT END WELL WITH AMAJIMBOS
However, all did not end well for South Africa boys’ team, Amajimbos when they faced their Zambian counterparts at the same venue on Sunday evening.
The Duncan Crowie team put up a good fight only to succumb to Kelvin Phiri’s 60th minute goal from a rebound.
Zambia had played a free-kick which caused pandemonium in the penalty box resulting in the box being cleared against the upright.
The rebound fell kindly to Phiri who needed the simplest of touches to score the only goal of the game at Bingu National Stadium.
The consolation for Amajimbos is that they secured a ticket to the AFCON finals for the under-17 scheduled for Algeria next year.
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