The Mercury E-dition

SA U23s only have themselves to blame following loss to France

ESHLIN VEDAN eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za

SOUTH Africa Under-23 football coach David Notoane has admitted that his team have only themselves to blame after losing their second group stage game 4-3 against France at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday.

The result virtually killed off any chance that the South African’s had of advancing to the knockout stages of the Games. They have now lost back-to-back games against hosts Japan and France.

"It was a difficult game‚ an exciting game and emotional game‚" said Notoane.

"We went for it‚ they also came for it‚ and I think at the end‚ it was a game of margins of error.

"We made more mistakes in our defensive actions than France - they scored four and we scored three.

“But I am proud of the boys‚ for their effort‚ for their commitment and for the quality of the play of the football they are capable of.”

Despite the result, France were not the most dominant team in the game. There were parts of the game that the South African’s dominated as they led the game three times, before a lack of awareness and getting the basics right cost them.

Through awareness and getting the basics right, France captain Andre-Pierre Gignac managed to score a hat-rick. The 35-year-old is far from the most lethal striker that one can find around, but he does get the basics right and has awareness.

He capitalised from lapses in concentration from SA and punished them.

SA clearly went with a more attack-minded approach against France, something Notoane alluded to.

“So we decided to go with an approach against Japan that would allow us to have this kind of performance in terms of energy so that we did not risk burning ourselves out against Japan and then when we faced France we would be left with nothing in our reserves,” Notoane said.

"Off course we also had Mexico and the last group match in mind. It was primarily to manage our energy levels and hoping to take a draw against France that was not to be,” said Notoane.

SA will play their final group stage game against Mexico tomorrow.

SPORT

en-za

2021-07-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://themercury.pressreader.com/article/282024740292903

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