Johannesburg- South African Men’s U20 National Team head coach Shakes Mashaba is satisfied with the work his charges have put this week ahead of the second round second leg 2015 African Youth Championship qualifier to be played this weekend.

Amajita and Ethiopia meet on Sunday, 25 May 2014. The match has been moved from the Bidvest Wits Stadium (Milpark) to the Dobsonville Stadium, kickoff at 15h00.

Mashaba admitted that he needed to have the practice match to fine tune his boys and rectify some mistakes from the first leg in Addis Ababa two weeks ago.

“We opted to play the School of Excellence because they play more or less the same type of football as Ethiopia – the short passing game. I am happy that we managed to contain them, close them down and score four goals on top of that. In this game we have addressed three things – tight marking, going forward quickly and finishing,” said Mashaba after three 30-minute games played in Eldorado Park.

“So far the camp has gone well and I am happy with their fitness levels which we have been working on over the past few days. We have had some power sessions and I could even see in the practice that fatigue was setting in, but I am happy with the progress so far.”

South Africa has a 2-0 lead from the first leg and the coach has emphasized that the boys should not think much of the previous match.

“Playing at home has its pressures; it’s no more a luxury. We have told the players this coming match is a new one and they must forget about the lead. I told them that if we managed to score two away, what can stop them from scoring three here. So we have to guard against such things. We have been having meetings and what I am pleased about is that they are aware that the past match is gone, we have another challenge ahead of us,” said the coach.

“We are just worried about set-pieces – for and against us – we will be working on them in the remaining training sessions and we hope it will pay off. We all know that worldwide matches are won or lost through set pieces. If you get a set piece in front of goal you have to convert.“

Mashaba adds that his charges know what is at stake.

“Yes they are very much aware. They know for us to get to the 2015 U20 World Cup in New Zealand we have to do well in these matches so we can qualify for the AYC. The route looks short but it is difficult so we have to work hard to achieve our goals,” added Mashaba.

The squad has three training sessions left before the match on Sunday.

Today and tomorrow (afternoon) they will train in Eldorado Park, and on Saturday they will move to the match venue for their final training session at 16h00.-TDN
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