27 April 2019 – South Africa’s National Under-20 (Amajita) side finished of their second and final friendly match against Saudi Arabia on a high after subjecting the home side to a 2-1 defeat at the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium on Friday, 26 April.
Goals by Thabiso Monyane and Oswin Appollis in the second period of the match were enough to give Amajita the sought after win, after Turki AL Ammar scored an opener in the 53rd minute.
This result comes after Thabo Senong’s charges suffered a 1-0 defeat against the hosts in their first friendly match which took place on 23 April in the very same venue.
Senong had stated in his post-match interview that his charges were just unlucky not to have scored an equalizer in that game, adding that they would bounce back in second friendly.
Amajita dominated the game from the onset, with numerous chances created in the first half which could have seen them being in the lead by three goals before the halftime break.
Monyane, who scored a superb penalty which saw the opposition goalkeeper stand motionless between the sticks as the ball went in, had two scoring opportunities which did manifest into goals as wished.
Muzomuhle Khanyi as well, also went disappointingly over the crossbar a few minutes later in the game after he had received a superb delivery from Njabulo Blom on the near side inside the box.
However, Monyane, made up for his two missed chances in the second period of the match.
In the 56th minute, Monyane scored a beautiful equalizer from a spot kick after Blom was brought down inside the 18-yard box.
Seven minutes later, Monyane came back as the provider – whipping in a beautiful cross to connect with Appollis who scored his first goal for Amajita with a clean header inside 16-yard box.
Amajita will flew out to Poland via Dubai after the match, where they will continue with their upcoming 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup preparations there. The national juniors will also take on Uruguay (15 May) and Ukraine (18 May) before the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup Poland edition kicks off on May 23.
Amajita are in Group F alongside Argentina, Korea Republic and Portugal. The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament will run up until 15 June