Solid start for Amajita in Cosafa U20 campaign

Defending champions South Africa made a solid start to their Group B campaign as they claimed a 5-0 victory over Mauritius at the Sunset Stadium yesterday.

There were also victories for Eswatini and Madagascar on another excellent day of football, as the number of goals in the Cosafa U20 competition rose to 26 in six matches, more than four a game.

Eswatini beat Mozambique 2-0 and Madagascar won 3-0 over Lesotho.

South Africa made a strong start and were 2-0 up inside 12 minutes as goals from Sinenjongo Mkiva and Keagan Mitchell set them on their way. They added two more in the second half through SuperSport United’s rising star Oswin Appollis, his first a rasping shot into the net and his second a neatly-placed shot into the bottom corner.

Athenkosi Mcaba added a fifth in injury time at the end of the game as South Africa repeated the 5-0 scoreline they enjoyed over Mauritius in their 2018 opener.

New coach Helman Mkhalele is looking to emulate his predecessor Thabo Senong in winning the regional tournament.

Under Senong, Amajita won the tournament back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.

But the former Bafana Bafana winger, Mkhalele, is using tournament to prepare a team towards qualifying for the 2021 Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations and the U-20 World Cup that year.

South Africa are next in action on Sunday when they tackle Madagascar in what could be the crucial match in the pool‚ before a meeting with Lesotho in their final pool game on Tuesday.

Madagascar easily beat Lesotho 3 - 0 and the winner between Sunday’s game will automatically advance to the semifinals.

Only the top team in each of the three groups advances to the semifinals‚ along with the best runner-up. – Cosafa

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