South Africa coach Duncan Crowie says South Africa will learn from their 5-0 loss to Senegal in Wednesday’s Total Energies U17 African Nations (AFCON) quarter-final at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.
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The feeling of the South African team is that we don’t lose, we always learn from failures. It’s a tough lesson, and we’ll take it. We faced a very good team with dangerous individual players. We tried to stop them but could not succeed,” the coach said.
Crowe adds; “The result is disappointing for us. Nobody wants to lose 5-0. Senegal had good physical players with good pace. In many cases we were unable to match.
Conceding two quick back-to-back own goals did a lot of damage to the players’ psychological state and they failed to recover in time, allowing Senegal to add a third to go into the break 3-0 up.
“I don’t blame anyone for the defeat, not even the players who scored their own goals. It’s part of the game and we can only take lessons. I’m proud of the players and all they gave in this tournament,” remarked Crowe.
If nurtured, he believes the players have what it takes to break into the senior Bafana Bafana squad over the next few years and take the next steps in their careers.