Durban — The National Under-23 team’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s Olympics were dealt a minor blow as they played out to a 1-1 stalemate against Congo at the Dobsonville Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
South Africa will now have the tall order of needing to score at least one goal to have any chance of qualifying for the Olympics, having conceded an away goal.
It was the visitors who broke the deadlock in a highly contested first round of play through attacker Bissila Mabiala, the big man capitalising on poor position by the home side’s defence in the 43rd minute.
The Congolese put together a couple of decent passes in the middle of the park before a ball outside saw a quality cross played on the blind side of Olwethu Makhanya at centre back and Mabiala capitalised, heading into the bottom corner.
Thapelo Maseko, who had been South Africa’s best player on the day, found the all-important equalising goal, assisted by second-half substitute Mduduzi Shabalala in the 69th minute.
Shabalala added the creative bone the hosts had been missing in the first stanza and beautifully found a running Maseko in the box, throwing the game back on a knife edge.
AmaGlug-glug coach David Notoane named a strong and extremely attacking starting eleven comprising the likes of red-hot Cape Town Spurs striker Ashley Cupido with Maseko and Stellenbosch’s Devin Titus on either side of him in a 4-3-3 formation.
One would have expected that the partnership of Kaizer Chiefs’ Samkelo Zwane and AmaZulu’s Ethan Brooks would facilitate the hosts controlling the proceedings, however it wasn’t the case as the visitors displayed maturity in game management in the opening stanza.
The home side did show signs of life after returning from the break but were halted on several occasions due to a resolute Congo defence.
Cupido thought he had found the equaliser for the young South Africans in the 53rd minute, however his celebrations were halted by the assistant referee, who raised his flag for an offside.
South Africa will now travel to Brazzaville to play the second leg at Massamba-Debat Stadium on March 27.
IOL Sport