South African Under-23 captain Keagan Dolly says his team are not “at our best yet” ahead of the Olympic qualifier semi-final on Wednesday.
The SA U23 side made it through to the last-four of the Eight Nations tournament in Senegal with a 1-0 victory over Tunisia on Friday night, with Orlando Pirates midfielder Menzi Masuku scoring the crucial goal after being set up by a brilliant run and pass by Wits sensation Phakamani Mahlambi.
The top three teams in the competition will qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics, so South Africa will go to Brazil automatically if they win their semi-final.
But first they have to get through one of Algeria, Nigeria or Egypt from Group B, which will be decided later on Saturday night, in Wednesday’s semi-final in Dakar.
The Tunisians dominated large stages of the match, and to his credit, Dolly admitted that South Africa weren’t at their best. “In the early stages of the game we were in control, we had a lot of possession, but in the second half, they came out much stronger,” Dolly told the SA Football Association (Safa) website on Saturday.
“They were threatening us, had a few chances, but they didn’t take them and we sealed the game off. It was a great effort by the boys, it was a good team performance and we are happy that we qualified for the semi-finals.
“I still don’t think we are at our best yet because we showed a lack of concentration in the game and Tunisia almost scored in the second half, but our defence was quite solid and we managed to win the game.”
Coach Owen da Gama will hope that his charges can secure their Olympic berth by winning their semi-final and not wait until the third-place playoff to guarantee their passage to Rio.
Dolly said: “With the type of performance we showed against Tunisia, we are ready to face any team. Obviously we would like to know who we are playing against and how they are playing because we will be meeting them for the first time. But we just need to focus on ourselves and on our normal style of football.
“Our main goal was to get past the group stages because we didn’t start so well in the tournament. We were working hard to qualify for the semis because we know we have two opportunities there to qualify for the Rio Olympics – we can qualify outright if we win our semi-final, or if not, we still have a chance in the third-place playoff.
“But the first prize is to win the semi-final and go to the final and not leave anything to chance.”
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@IndyCapeSport