South Africa are one step closer to qualifying for the 2020 Olympics after booking a place in U23 Afcon semifinals.
Coach David Notoane’s young charges booked their place in the final four by ending runners-up in Group B.
AmaGlugGlug sealed the deal with a goalless draw with Nigeria on Friday night, to finish behind group winners Ivory Coast.
They now face hosts Egypt in a 8pm showdown on Tuesday night for a place in the final against either the Elephants or Ghana’s Black Satellites.
With three places up for grabs in Tokyo, failure to make the title decider would still leave SA with a lifeline in the third-place playoff, the winner of which will join the finalists in Japan.
FEELS GREAT: Bafana U23 side goalkeeper, Darren Johnson. Picture: Chris Ricco/BackpagePix.
Coach Notoane will be confident that his side can book their place in the tournament, based on their watertight defence.
Marshalled by captain Tercious Malepe and Keanu Cupido, of Ajax Cape Town and Cape Town City respectively, in central defence, SA are yet to concede a goal.
And Ajax goalkeeper Darren Johnson, says: “It feels really great to be the only goalkeeper who has not conceded from the eight nations which featured this year’s Afcon.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/TotalAFCONU23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TotalAFCONU23semi-final encounter against hosts, Egypt.
The match between South Africa and Egypt will take place on 19 November 2019 at Cairo Stadium.
The match will kick-off at 20h00. 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/UyNZVYSrAw
— SAFA.net (@SAFA_net)
“However, none of this would have been possible without the support of my teammates both in defence and attack.
“Each of them have been phenomenal whenever they were given the nod by to either start or come in as a sub.”
Notoane will expect more from European-based attackers Luther Singh and Lyle Foster when the knockout stages come.