Amajita aim to bounce back against New Caledonia

Amajita will look to revive their hopes of advancing to the knockout stage of the Fifa U-20 World Cup in Chile when they face minnows New Caledonia at Estadio El Teniente Rancagua on Thursday.

The match is at 8pm in Chile — 1am on Friday morning South African time.

Coach Raymond Mdaka’s U-20s lost 2-1 to France in their opening game at the same venue on Monday and need a win against the group minnows to stand a chance of progressing to the last 16.

New Caledonia were annihilated 9-1 by the US in their opening game on Monday and Amajita, after a competitive outing against the Bleuets, will be confident of registering their first win.

Midfielder or fullback Shakeel April said Amajita will go for the jugular and look for a victory.

“The experience [against France] was good; probably we would have felt better had we won. The level is high, but we will adapt and we will bring the team to that level and control the game because that’s what we do best. That’s how South Africa play,” April told Safa media.

“We didn’t have most of the ball against France. They had most of the ball. In the next game we are going to play our South African football.”

April admitted South Africa need to be better in the final third after missing a few crucial chances against France in the opener.

“I could have scored for the team, but I was rushing and I think that was the difference between us and France. They took their chances and we didn’t. But [in] the next game we won’t back down.”

Goalkeeper Fletcher Smythe-Lowe said Amajita’s confidence will be boosted from the performance against 2014 European U-19 champions France.

“We took a lot of positives from the previous game. We were good in many aspects. The team did well with just a few errors that let us down,” he said.

“Now there is extra pressure on the next one. We are looking forward to the game and can’t wait to show ourselves and hope to get the result.”

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