AFRICA’S BEST

THERE is a real feel-good factor around South Africa’s soccer at the moment, with the national Under-20 team, Amajita, winning the African Cup of Nations. 

A 70th-minute goal by Gomolemo Kekana was enough to see Mzansi beta Morocco 1-0 in the final to lift U20 tournament gold for the first time in history, adding to the senior team’s third place at last year’s Afcon.  

SA had a vrag stars on display in the Eqypt tournament, where they KO’d Nigeria 1-0 in the semifinal and also got the better of DR Congo 1-0 in the quarterfinals. 

That means they didn’t concede a single goal in the playoffs, with goalkeeper Fletcher Lowe receiving much of the praise and being touted as a future star. 

While Lowe won the Goalkeeper of the Tournament award, Stellenbosch FC youngster Tylon Smith won the Player of the Tournament prize. 

That tournament win means Amajita will head to the U20 World Cup in Chile in September as African champions, surpassing the class of 1997 who finished as runners-up.

Coach Raymond Mdaka tells FarPost of his team’s success: “Well done to the boys. They’ve done themselves good, but we will always want to thank everybody, the players, the technical team.

“Starting from the first games in the group stages, you can even see the margins of the results, it’s 1-0, 1-0 scorelines, but thank God we were able to go through the whole journey until we came to the final, and we ended up winning the final... ”

AFCON U20 TOURNAMENT XI: 

Fletcher Lowe (South Africa), Neo Rapoo (South Africa), Mohamed Goweily (Egypt)., Othmane Maamma (Morocco), Daniel Bameyi (Nigeria), 

Lazola Maku (South Africa), Hossam Essadak (Morocco), Faycal Zahouani (Morocco), Hamza Koutoune (Morocco), Momoh Kamara (Sierra Leone), Tylon Smith (South Africa). 

Best Player: Tylon Smith (South Africa)

Top Scorer: Momoh Kamara (Sierra Leone) – 4 goals

Best Goalkeeper: Fletcher Lowe (South Africa)

Best Coach: Raymond Mdaka (South Africa)