Amajita have their work cut out for them

South Africa lost 2-1 in their opening match to Japan at Sunwon World Cup Stadium in South Korea after going into the half-time break leading 1-0.

Senong will still be without Phakamani Mahlambi and Teboho Mokoena.

“We are now focused on the next match against Italy. They are another tough team to beat, but we have to work hard‚ we have to dig deeper‚” Senong said.

“We have to plan and prepare well. It’s important that we collect three points from this match to give us a chance to qualify for the next round.

“We created many chances against Japan. But we just need to score from the many chances we’ve been creating.

“We’ve reminded the boys that they played well against Japan‚ even though they could not win.

“We’re encouraging them to be more composed in the final third‚ be more calm‚ look for other passing options and that can give us a chance to win the match.

“It’s much better that we now have 21 players in camp with Teboho Mokoena and Reeve Frosler having arrived. It always helps the technical team to have more options.”