The South African U23 men’s national team kicked off their 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games preparations on a positive note when they came from behind to defeat a stubborn Algeria at the Dr Rantlai Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
With head coach Raymond Mdaka not on the bench due to a family bereavement, his assistant Karabo Mogudi took over and saw the team dominate the early proceedings but did not convert the numerous chances they created.
Instead, it was the visitors who shook the scoreboard with a Yanis Senhadji goal. Cheered on by a decent crowd at the stadium, South Africa restored parity early in the second half through Quwan Plaatjies in the 49th minute. This came just a few minutes after being introduced. The celebrations had hardly died down when the hosts took a 2-1 lead through Nhlanhla Gasa who had also just checked in.
It turned out into substitutes show when Faiz Abrahams (73’) added his name onto the scoresheet to make it 3-1 to South Africa and a great start to their Olympic Games preparations. “A very good game, obviously I’ll say that because we won 3-1 and winning 3-1 does not mean that we do not look at areas that we can improve on, but generally I think the boys did well, they applied themselves properly in the first and the second-half, just that in the first half we did not finish the chances that we created.
“In the second half we changed a few things, and those boys did the business, and we got the important goals that we got from our three substitutes. So, I can say we did very well with those subs, but as I mentioned earlier we are happy for these preparation games and they’ll prepare us for the next AFCON finals coming in the next international window against Madagascar,” said Mogudi.
“This match proves that the talent that we have selected, I know we did not do enough, we’ll never do enough in football unfortunately, but I think the talent that we’ve selected right now has done the job and I think they can still do more. We’ll push them to do more, we know that they’ve got a higher ceiling, and they’ve got potential to maximize the outputs on the field of play. Holistically, a very good match but we’ll go back, analyze and see where we can improve.”
“Congratulations HOD Jack, the captain and the whole team. This is good preparation for the road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. We need to qualify and the journey is underway,” said SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan.
The two nations meet again on Sunday at the same venue.
