Amajita will look to revive their hopes of advancing to the knockout stage of the Fifa U-20 World Cup in Chile when they face minnows New Caledonia in their second match on Friday (1am SA time) at Estadio El Teniente.
The SA U-20 side lost 1-2 to France in their opening match on Monday and they have to win against New Caledonia to stay in the competition.
New Caledonia were annihilated 9-1 by the US in their opening match on Monday and Amajita feel they have a chance to register their first win in the tournament.
SA midfielder Shakeel April said they won't back down this time and will go out there to try to get a result in a must-win match.
“The experience was good; probably we would have felt better had we won. The level is high, but we will adapt and we will bring the team to that level and control the game because that's how we do best. That's how SA plays,” April told Safa media.
The experience was good; probably we would have felt better had we won. The level is high, but we will adapt and we will bring the team to that level and control the game because that's how we do best. That's how SA plays
— Shakeel April, SA midfielder
“Unfortunately, we didn't have most of the balls against France. They had most of the balls; next game for sure we are going to play our SA football.”
April also admitted that they need to be better in the final third after missing a few chances against France in the opener.
“I could have scored for the team, but I was rushing and I think that was the difference between us and France. They took their chances and we didn't. But for sure [in] the next game we won't back down,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amajita goalkeeper Fletcher Smythe-Lowe said there are a lot of positives they took from their defeat to France and will be better in their second match as they aim for a win.
“We took a lot of positives from the previous game. We were very good in many aspects. The team did extremely well with just a few errors from us that let us down,” Symthe-Lowe said.
“Now there is extra pressure on the next one and we are looking forward to the game and we can't wait to show ourselves and hope to get the results.”
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