…Pips Morocco by a Lone Goal!
The Amajitas of South Africa on Sunday night at the Cairo International Stadium, Egypt won their first ever African U20 male football title with a lone goal victory over the Junior Atlas of Morocco.
It was a sweet revenge of the finals of 1997 which was the first ever tournament of South Africa after admissions into the African football confraternity from the apartheid imbroglio when Morocco piped the Mandela country by a lone goal.
Mamelodi Sundown Defensive Midfielder, Gomolemo Kekana got a long range pass from his goalkeeper, Fletcher Lowe who made six saves in the match and slammed it into the night in the 70th minute which was actually approved by VAR.
Morocco dominated the match but was rather unlucky to have lost the match. The North Africans got 14-10 shots at goal; 6-5 shots on target; stringing 416-363 passes with 54-46% ball possession. They had 12-11 foul calls and 6-5 corner kicks.
It was jubilations galore in the South African land especially in soccer crazy city of Jo’Borg.
To get to the finals, South Africa piped Nigeria by a lone goal in the semifinal; beat DR Congo by same margin in the quarterfinal; played 1-1 with Zambia; thrashed Sierra Leone 4-1 and also piped Tanzania by a lone goal scoring total 8 goals before the finals and conceding 2.
Morocco piped Egypt by a lone goal in the semifinal beat Sierra Leone by same margin in the quarterfinal hammered Tunisia 3-1; played goalless with Nigeria and beat Kenya 3-2 at the group stages scoring a total 8 goals and conceding 3.
Both teams met once before now in the All Africa Games of 16th August 2019 and Morocco won by a lone goal
Morocco won the title once in 1997 the year South Africa played first in the tournament and defeated the Amajita by a lone goal in the finals. She won the Bronze in 1987 beating Somalia 3-0 and lost the Bronze to Republic of Benin in 2005 5-3 on penalties after 1-1 draw at full time.
South Africa never won the title but got the Silver in 1997 losing 0-1 to Morocco; She got the Bronze once in 2019 when she defeated Nigeria 5-3 on penalties after a goalless draw and in 2019 she lost at the same stage to Nigeria by a lone goal and in in 2017 lost Bronze to Ghana 1-2.
Earlier Nigeria had collected her 5th Bronze Medal of the tournament beating hosts Egypt 4-1 on penalty after 1-1 at full time in a match that Egypt had scored the curtain raiser in the 3rd minute but could not sustain the momentum.
All the semifinalists, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa will represent Africa at the world cup in Chile.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
#CAF #NFF #MFA #SAFA #EFF.
