27 November 2018– Minimising individual errors in game situations will see South Africa’s National Under-20 (Amajita) go all the way to defend their COSAFA Under-20 title.
These are the words of Amajita coach, Thabo Senong, who believes that Amajita stand a good chance of fighting to be crowned Southern regional football champions once more in line with SA national teams.
The COSAFA Under-20 Championship will run from 2–14 December 2018 in Kitwe, Zambia.
Amajita are in Group B, and will first face Mauritius on December 3, before they play Namibia and Eswatini in their remaining group fixtures.
“As a development coach,” Senong said. “It is very crucial to understand that developing players can be inconsistent in their individual performances. Players can make possible errors in game situations, which might see you ultimately losing a match. You need to know how to deal with that weakness in their play earlier on before it plays out in game situations.
Senong added: “Our focus as Amajita’s technical staff is to try and push these players to be focused and consistent in every single match they will get to participate in. That is the only way to go about getting the best out of them, performance wise.”
Senong admitted that they go in this tournament bearing targets on their back, mainly because they are the defending champions.
Senong, however, added that he knows how to deal with that pressure.
“Teams which are going to lose games in this tournament; are teams who are going to make costly mistakes in game situations,” Senong said. “Our main objective in this camp is minimise the amount of individual errors which might occur in our matches. Dealing with such weaknesses will see us developing these individual players into a better and stronger team.