South Africa's new young golden generation had to settle for silver as they lost 2-0 to Mali in the final of the African Under-17 Championship in Niger yesterday.

Molefi Ntseki's side were denied the honour of becoming the first SA junior team to be crowned African champions, but have shown rich potential and booked a place at the 2015 Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Chile in October.

The opening goal of the game came from Siaka Bagayoko midway through the second half as poor marking allowed the Mali to net from a corner.

The west Africans created the better chances throughout and Amajimbos had goalkeeper Mondli Mpoto to thank for keeping them in the game until the final 10 minutes.

Mali's second goal was a killer blow to Amajimbos' chances as Aly Malle provided a 20-yard left-footed curling effort that this time gave Mpoto no chance.

South Africa had rallied from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Mali in the pool stages, but this time it was a different story.

Khanyisa Mayo did have the ball in the back of the net with two minutes to go but the match officials harshly ruled it out for offside. It was a deserved win in the end for a Mali side that were clearly the best team in the tournament.

After a first half in which there was little in the way of goal-mouth, the second period provided much more excitement.