7 June 2019 – Coach, David Notoane and his technical team have a lot to ponder ahead of their Plate Final COSAFA Cup bout with Malawi this afternoon at Moses Mabhida Stadium at 17h00.

South Africa will be without left back and first time callup Bongani Sam who was pulled off against Uganda due to an early injury.

The coach believes the determination his U23 charges have shown towards the bigger picture remains satisfactory.

“For the tournament we are back at the same place. It is the final, we want to win it and we are expected to win it for national pride. We are playing a physical Malawi obviously,” said Notoane.

Besides the possibility of cracking the cut for the Bafana Bafana Africa Cup of Nations squad for Egypt which will be announced in the next coming days, keeping the core of the squad for the future will be determined by the outcome of the COSAFA tournament.

The U23s will be looking to get the better of Zimbabwe in their next match which is an Olympic qualifying match a few months away from now.

“The first objective is that we want to win, which is natural, to come out of this tournament with something to reflect on. If we don’t, we will be disappointed of course, but having said that we got the three games that we were looking for coming into the tournament.

In terms of that then positives will be that we would have given everyone, almost, a run. We’re looking to start Keletso Magkalwa to see where he is. Also, to make sure that everyone gets a run. A run means an assessment, whether it be 10, 15 minutes for us that is very critical.

Then you have the goalkeeping situation. Mondli Mpoto came in, two brilliant saves in the game if not four, and then two penalty saves. Then there is Darren Johnson who is waiting on the wings.

So, I hope at the day we come out having ticked all the boxes, everyone having had played.

Of course, I am not in control of other opinions out there but from our own internal purposes we would have achieved our objectives we came here for,” the coach concluded.