 The South African National under 23 side arrived back in the country on Monday (06 June 2011) from Benin where they played the first leg of the 2012 London Olympics qualifier against the hosts.
South Africa lost the encounter by three goals to one (3-1) and will be looking to better their performance when they engage the same opponents in a fortnight’s time at home.
The South African Head Coach Shakes Mashaba says he is not happy with the result but satisfied with the performance of the whole team as they showed great character under testing circumstances.
“I think the boys did very well under what was testing circumstances in terms of officials, I don’t think we did anything wrong, the only thing I would say let us down was the inability to convert our chances into goals. Two of their goals were from set pieces; one from a free kick and the other one was a penalty; it was one of those things where luck was just not on our side,” said Mashaba.
The team is expected to go back into camp on Sunday (12 June 2011) in preparation for the return leg.
Mashaba says the team will now focus their energy in trying to correct the little mistakes that proved to be costly in Benin.
“What we must now do is put this result behind us and focus on the second leg and by all means try to better our performance especially in the goal-scoring department, as I said before we played well and had we took our chances this would have been different. It is good that we scored away because that goal might prove to be very decisive in the future,” added Mashaba. |
