Mdaka sees promise in Amajita despite early World Cup exit

While he expressed disappointment following their exit in the U-20 Fifa World Cup after losing 1-3 to Colombia in the last 16 on Wednesday, Amajita coach Raymond Mdaka says this was a good experience for the players and the technical team in Chile.

Amajita's journey came to an end despite showing character in the tournament, where they beat the US and New Caledonia in the group phase.

But they came short on Wednesday when they lost to Colombia in the knockout phase after they conceded an early goal through Joel Canchimbo seven minutes into the game, before Mfundo Vilakazi equalised from a spot kick after the restart. 

Néiser Villarreal put Colombia ahead again in the 63rd minute, then added a third goal six minutes into added time to send his side through to the quarterfinal.

Mdaka said they took a lot of positives. “It's a hard pill to swallow, more especially if you have a team that you believe can get a result,” he said after the game.

“Sometimes we get used to winning and when you lose, it cuts deep. But other than that, we understand it is the nature of football, especially in the knockout stage. You play, you don't win, you are out, but even before one can talk about the match, I think it is an experience for the boys, the technical team and everybody who was here to be in this stage of the World Cup.”

Mdaka also said Colombia was spot on in their game plan after doing their homework about them and that they could not respond earlier on.

“Going to the game, I think we were caught up in the first few minutes, where we could not build up as we normally do. I think from there we got settled and had several chances that we missed and got a goal from a penalty, but we conceded a second goal,” he said.

“I think Colombia did a good job against us, we knew how they played and we felt we would exploit the spaces on the site, but they made it in a way that first they press us high and also make sure we don't get passing lanes from the middle. It frustrated our play a bit and we ended up with this result. We need to learn and we will take it from there going forward.”

Sowetan