Ramatsiyi Moholoa

Ramatsiyi Moholoa

Amajita are confident that they will still qualify for the 2009 Africa Youth Championships finals despite missing many gilt-edged opportunities in their game against Reunion.

Serame "Rhee" Letsoaka, Amajita's coach, plans to sharpen the team ahead of their second leg match against Reunion in two weeks time.

This was after the wasteful South African Under-20 national side played to a 1-1 draw in their first leg match played at Caledonian Stadium on Saturday.

South Africa have themselves to blame for their failure to bag full points after squandering dozens of scoring opportunities, with George Maluleke being the chief culprit. Amajita seem to have been infected by Bafana Bafana's disease of missing easy scoring opportunities.

"We played well. The only problem is that we lacked aggression in front of goals, which is unacceptable," said a clearly disappointed Letsoaka.

"There is no way Reunion will beat us in two weeks' time. We need to sharpen our finishing. Our boys have to show more aggression in front of goals.

"Our plan is not only to qualify for the finals in Rwanda, we also want to see ourselves playing and doing well in the World Youth Championships in Egypt."

Jacque Adeler, Reunion's coach, said: "It was a great match. The boys played very well. We are going to finish off South Africa at home in two weeks' time."

The team from the Indian Ocean island celebrated the result as if they had won a big tournament after the final whistle.

"Yes, it is a great achievement for us and we are looking forward to getting a win on home soil," said Jean Rollin, Reunion's head of delegation.

Back to the game, Reunion took the lead in the 15th minute through Jonathan Chaul whose superb curling free kick gave goalie Vumalo Nxako no choice. Maluleke hit the upright in the 34th minute.

But the South Africans had to wait until the 60th minute to level terms through Thulani Ngcepe with a header after Thabang Serero's cross.