Shandre Campbell's individualism comes under scrutiny after Madagascar win

The junior national team began their lengthy qualifying campaign for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles with a hard-fought win at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, but the performance left Mdaka with areas to work on. 

The coach admitted he was particularly frustrated with winger Shandre Campbell, who on several occasions attempted to force the issue by taking on opponents and trying to create something on his own. –

Mdaka wants his players to show greater discipline.

"You're very spot on because I don't know if that's the nature or how it's supposed to be, because most of the talented players will want to make things that are not there in a situation where it could be simple. Remember the ball that Shandre got? Everyone was showing up in the box, something that we should've put in, and then we score and then we get something. We will work on that, do a lot of team building, and we do a lot of presentations for them to understand playing as a team and getting a goal," said Mdaka.

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The coach added that attacker Mfundo Vilakazi was also guilty of this in the past but has found ways to use his trickery to help the team.

Madagascar were stubborn throughout the match and Mdaka pointed out his technical team were figuring them out as the fixture progressed, with substitute Quwan Plaatjies getting the solitary goal. 

Mdaka would have been even more pleased with a few more goals, especially with the encounter classified as an away match for South Africa.

CAF did not approve of a venue where Madagascar could host the match.

"I think had we converted the few chances that we got, it should've given us that leverage a bit, so we ended up being frustrated because sometimes when you want goals and they're not coming, it's frustrating a bit.

We made some substitutions just to make sure we strengthened going forward and also blocked the middle to close some of the counters, and I think it worked for us. We missed a few chances again after those subs, but all good for us, and we're looking forward to the next game that we play on Tuesday."