Khumalo still hopes for Cosafa semis berth
Bafana Bafana Cosafa Cup coach Vela Khumalo remains hopeful his troops will make it into the semifinals of this year's tournament.
The national second-string team kept that dream alive with a 2-0 win in their group A fixture against Zimbabwe at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Kabelo Dlamini converted a first-half penalty, while Ime Okon headed in a second goal near the end to make sure of the points.
Coach Khumalo said the weekend's victory was a huge confidence boost. SA are grouped with Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Mozambique.
Mozambique head the group A with four points from two games ahead of their final fixture against Zimbabwe, followed by South Africa (three), Mauritius (two) and Zimbabwe (one).
'This is the boost that we needed; however, we are still hopeful,' Khumalo said.
'We're still saying Mozambique must win against Zimbabwe, then you know.
'We need to win the remaining game now. We need to win against Mauritius and than we take it from there.'
After their opening 1-0 defeat to Mozambique, the coach said they went into Saturday's match under pressure.
'When you join football, it is pressure on its own. So add that we are hosts, we didn't start well, and we are missing chances. That gives you pressure.
'However, after our analysis we were very positive that we are at least going to get goals from this and win the game and move forward.
'When we played the first game against Mozambique, we played 4-2-3-1. We then said let's have more numbers because we were a little bit thin on top.
'So, we opted for 3-4-3 and we brought in the two 10s that were coming inside to support our striker. We did that because we knew that when they play SA, they will go low block.'
SA's final group game against Mauritius is at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein on Tuesday (3pm).
The Herald
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