Times Of Swaziland: U-20S OUT OF COSAFA CUP

U-20S OUT OF COSAFA CUP
================================================================================
BY ASHMOND NZIMA  on 07/12/2018 08:58:00


Namibia……… (3)4
Aristide3rd (PEN), François16th, Milazar28th, Roussety 50th
Eswatini…...…. (0) 0
MBABANE – Another day, one more heartbreaking display by a national football
side. Following a disastrous showing by the national senior soccer team Sihlangu
and the Under-23s in the recent Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers; there
is no reprieve for the football-loving nation.
The national Under-20s have been eliminated in the Council of Southern Africa
Football Association (COSAFA) just after one game following a demoralising 0-4
loss to Mauritius in Zambia yesterday.
With only three teams in their group following the withdrawal of Namibia, the
Eswatini outfit, who have never gone beyond the first round, are already out of
the tournament with a game to spare. They will face South Africa’s Amajita in
the ‘dead rubber’ match tomorrow, but even if the locals do the unthinkable
by thrashing the neighbours, they will still finish behind Mauritius on
head-to-head.
According to a live feed on the official COSAFA Twitter page, Mauritius had set
the tone for a flawless outing after scoring from 12 yards out through Yannick
Aristide when the game was three minutes old.
Adrien François doubled the advantage with a brilliant shot 13 minutes later
before Milazar put the game beyond the Eswatini side’s reach with the third
goal in the 28th minute.  Mauritius took the comfortable 3-0 lead to the
interval before one Roussety hit the last nail in the coffin in the 50th minute.
Reacting to the outcome, coach Dumsani Makhanya felt the result was not a true
reflection of the game, blaming the disastrous outing on costly blunders by his
troops.
“We missed a lot of clear cut chances, but conceded silly goals.
“In fact our opponents never created any chance,” he said.
Makhanya said they came face-to-face with the goalkeeper at least eight times,
but squandered the opportunities.
“I felt sorry for the boys because if their finishing was good, we should have
scored many goals,” he said.
Amajita, on the other hand, beat Mauritius by 5-0 in the opener a few days ago.
They are on top of the group.