…Malawi 1-4 South Africa…
NORTON-(MaraviPost)-Malawi U-17 head coach Enos Chatama has attributed his team’s 4-1 defeat to South Africa in the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations COSAFA tournament to his players’ lack of concentration and poor decision making on the pitch.
The match, played on Tuesday at Ngoni Stadium in Zimbabwe, saw South Africa dominate proceedings from start to finish.
Inganathi Sinama netted a brilliant brace while Mpho Molepo and Ntokozo Madondo added a goal each to seal the emphatic win.
Malawi’s only consolation came through Eli Randles, whose strike gave the Junior Flames a brief moment of hope.
Speaking after the match Chatama admitted that his side struggled to maintain their shape with defensive lapses proving costly.
“It was a tough match. We kept losing possession carelessly, and that exposed our backline. At this level, you cannot afford to make such mistakes against strong teams like South Africa,” said Chatama.
The coach emphasized that despite the disappointing result, the tournament has been a valuable learning experience for his young squad.
He noted that most of his players are new to international competition and need time to develop the mental and tactical maturity required to compete at this stage.
“We need to go back home, analyze what went wrong, and start rebuilding. Our goal is to ensure that in future tournaments, we will not only compete but also beat teams that currently look stronger than us,” he added.
The defeat puts Malawi out of COSAFA with 6 points from 3 games
South Africa, on the other hand, strengthened their bid for a place in the knockout stages with the convincing win and they will play against Comoros in the next match.