Senong sure Amajita will get it right

In order to keep their hopes of advancing to the next round of the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in France, Amajita coach Thabo Senong says they have to remain positive going into their last two group stage games.

The South Africans lost their opening game 5-2 against Argentina last Saturday. The team will now take on South Korea in their second Group F match at the Tychy Stadium today. The Asians also come into this game having lost, 1-0 to Portugal.

“We have to remain positive because we have been a team who have won many games before and lost a few games. It’s all about teaching the boys to come back from a bad result. Football has a lot of surprises and I still believe in our team, our players and our planning in the group stage because we knew Group F would be very difficult with us coming up against Portugal, Argentina and Korea,” said Senong.

READ: Amajita will fight to the end – Senong

“We have to plan for Korea and Portugal now to try and steal results because that is the only way for us to stay in the tournament. We have to get three points somewhere and draw … or two wins if it’s possible. As I said, the group is still open.

“Korea are a good team, they will try to come back after being beaten by Portugal, but it was a tight result. So the group is still open so we have to remain hopeful and believe in our boys, in our plan and work harder. I have to believe in our players and our plan to make it better in our last two games in the group.”

Meanwhile, Senong also revealed that goalkeeper and skipper Khulekani Khubeka will be fit for the Korea clash after sustaining an injury in the tie against Argentina.
“Luckily it is not that bad, it is not a shoulder dislocation.

“The medical team gave us the heads up whereby he should be okay for the next match because we were worried that we might lose our number one keeper and our captain.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.