South Africa lost to skillful Falconets, says coach Khumalo

BASETSANA lost their bid for a debut World Cup appearance and the gaffer says the Falconets made her side look ordinary

South Africa U-20 women coach Maude Khumalo conceded that her side crashed against a ‘more experienced’ team after an 8-0 aggregate defeat to Nigeria.

Basetsana were bidding for their debut appearance at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, but they suffered a comprehensive 6-0 defeat to the Falconets in Benin City on Saturday.

And the gaffer, who had hoped for a positive result blamed loss of concentration and failure to stick to game plan for their second leg humiliation.

“First, I will like to congratulate Nigeria. It is never easy playing a game away, especially against a team with a lot of experience,” Khumalo told Goal.

“I’m not really disappointed because we managed to create some chances but we lost a lot of concentration and didn’t stick to our game plan.

“Experience was a major difference between us and Nigeria. They ha ve been to several World Cup tournaments and they know how to play their game and we also needed to contain them and play according to our strength.”

“In the first half, I think we allowed ourselves play their game but in the second half, I insisted we must stick to our game no matter the scoreline, hence we managed to create a lot of chances,” she continued. “What we did was to make some changes and we said we’ve got nothing to lose and let’s go out there and do our best, hence that the difference between both halves.

“We were positive that we were going to score goals because as a coach you must stay positive in order to get a positive result.

“We cannot come back into the game with our head down because we lost the first leg and that this time we were not going to win. Despite all this, I’m proud of the girls because they gave their best and fought until the end of the match.

“We gave our best but it was unfortunate the more experienced side won at the end of the day. As a coach, you need to have a lot of options and there was no reason for us to sit back because we are trailing by 2-0. So we needed to go out there to attack as much as we can.”