South Africa’s u20 National Team (Amajita) and Namibia played to a goalless draw in the first leg of the CAF u20 Africa Youth Championships qualifiers in a fast-paced match played at Sam Nujoma Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday afternoon.

South Africa’s u20 National Team (Amajita) and Namibia played to a goalless draw in the first leg of the CAF u20 Africa Youth Championships qualifiers in a fast-paced match played at Sam Nujoma Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday afternoon.

The return leg will be played on 11 June at a venue still to be decided.

The first half of the match was flat as both teams struggled to fashion meaningful chances with most of the play bogged in the middle of the park.

However, it was the host who created a few gilt-edged chances mostly from set-pieces which Mondli Mpoto in goals for Amajita easily dealt with.

On the other end, Amajita midfielders failed to connect with their forwards and hardly gave the Namibian goalkeeper a challenge for the entire first 45 minutes.

But the visitors came back a changed side after some pep talk from coach Thabo Senong and his technical team. The South Africans started to create some few anxious moments for the hosts and with a bit of luck could have come out of Windhoek with a precious away goal.

Sibongakonke Mbatha was brought in at the beginning of the second half in place of Kabelo Seriba and the impact was immediately felt as Amajita fashioned a number of scoring chances.

Menzi Ndwandwe made his debut for Amajita in the 63rd minute when he came on for Keletso Makgalwa while Khanyisa Mayo came on for Nelson Maluleke.

“We could have played better and we could have made use of our chances but we did not concede which was one of our objectives coming into this match. I am proud of the boys’ performance.

“However, we are not happy about not getting that away goal but we are generally happy with the outcome,” said Senong.

South African starting line up: Mpoto; Mohamme; Mukumela; Malepe( c); Frosler; Mokoena; Mtsweni; Maluleke; Seriba; Makgalwa; Mkatshana

South African substitutions: Tshabalala; Ncgobo; Ismail; Mbule; Mbatha; Mayo; Ndwandwe

Namibian starting line up: Wolff; Kandjambanga; Eib; Tsandib; Nauseb; Willemse; Hakira; Hummel; Tjikundi; Naweseb; Maharero

Namibian substitutions: Tjimune; Kwedhi; Kamati; Katjivena; Paulino; Klukowski; Kasume