Mdaka preaches consistency as Amajita successfully defend COSAFA U20 crown

The South African national U20 team clinched their third COSAFA title in a row and 11th overall after beating hosts Mozambique 2-1 in the final in Maputo yesterday. Goals from Oarebile “Guluva” Booysens and Steven “Stevie G” Mendes made the difference on the day. 

As African champions, Mdaka says these are standards they need to maintain.

"To me, yes, like I always say, you see, you need consistency of some kind. Yes, it will not be easy but sometimes when you win you have to maintain that consistency of winning and winning and winning,” Mdaka said. 

“So, it says something to the country, it means you have got the talent. Given time, given opportunity to prepare we can do better. 

“It's always a blessing to have this kind of talented players even in the previous edition honestly we had very good players and I'm happy we have got an opportunity now to make a better team compared to the one that we came with here but keeping the trophy. 

“Keeping the trophy, taking the trophy where it was for the last season, it's something else, I really appreciate and give credit to the boys and every supporter who was trying to give us energy almost everyday."

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It was a hard-fought final for Amajita, played in front of a hostile home crowd that was fully behind its team. 

But it also took the strong mentality of the players to block the noise and deliver the result. 

Mdaka has more on what they had to go through to lift this trophy.

"Well, it's in a tournament, normally when you go to a tournament you always prepare for all the games that are coming. We were taking one game at a go everytime not thinking about the following game or the next game until we went through the group stage and we went to the semifinal,” the coach explained. 

“We were already tested by then in terms of the number of injuries that we had and the legs of some other players because others played all the games. So, it was a little bit difficult."