SA Under-23s end Saudi Arabia tour without a win 

It might have not been the results he was hoping for, but South African National Under-23 coach David Notoane is satisfied with his players’ performance following their 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia in their second international friendly played at King Abdullah Sport City Stadium on Tuesday.

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In the first game, Notoane’s charges lost the tie 3-2 after the hosts managed to score a late winner in stoppage time.

On Tuesday, having hit the woodwork three times and after seeing a Zakhele Lepasa goal disallowed, while Saudi Arabia scored from a penalty, Notoane believes his team deserved to win the second match.

“Today we played 1-1 against the Saudis in our second match after a very solid and good performance. We really deserved to win to be honest with the amount of chances, we got hitting the post three times in the game. So, that gives you a lot of inspiration, we take out a lot of positives,” said Notoane after the game.

“We would have loved to have ended the tour with a win. But I said to the boys it’s difficult to win in such conditions – as you saw the officials were playing a different game against us. We conceded from a penalty again. But it’s okay, our focus is preparation.”

The national Under-23s are busy preparing for next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games and having assembled a team full of new names, Notoane is happy with the progress.

“We saw players like Lelethu Skelem, Shane Roberts and Sifiso Ngobeni, whom today we rested – Malebogo Modise came in for Ngobeni today  and he did well. Overall one is happy in terms of increasing the pool of players and addressing certain key challenges and key positions. Malebogo did well at left back and Ngobeni did well in the last game. So, that presents a process that leads into a solution going into next year (Olympic Games).”

The squad is expected to land back in the country on Wednesday afternoon.

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