Thabo Senong’s charges needed to produce something of a quality to overcome Italy in the second match at the Fifa U20 World Cup tournament in Suwon, and although they gave a good account of themselves in the first period, the technical team would be disappointed with their failure to test goalkeeper Zaccagno.
While Amajita looked good when playing the ball on the ground, the Italians used their height well to boss the midfield and break on counter-attacks on a number of occasions.
And Amajita were fortunate to be trailing their opponents by a single goal going into the half-time break, thanks to Mondli Mpoto’s heroics in the first 45 minutes.
But the South African goalkeeper could hardly do anything as the Italians took the lead through Ricardo Orsolini, who dusted himself up before firing past Mpoto from the penalty spot after he was fouled by Wiseman Meyiwa in the box.
Mpoto was always alert and often kept Amajita in the game. The only thing he has to improve on going forward is to be more vocal and perhaps he should also master the art of marshalling his defence better.
Italy should be commended for maintaining tactical discipline throughout the match, but it was evident that they did their homework on South Africa’s dangerman Luther Singh, who only showed up in the latter stages of the encounter.
South Africa didn’t show any sense of urgency in the second half, and that allowed Italy to create a few goalscoring chances to infiltrate them, and as a result, they set back and defended too deep.
They paid the price when Andrea Favilli exposed their defensive frailties with a 57th-minute header. A long throw-in was played into the Amajita box, and despite having enough numbers to deal with the danger, the South Africans allowed Favilli to beat Mpoto.
The goal demoralised Amajita, but the introduction of Teboho Mokoena midway through lifted them up.
The midfielder pulled the strings, and South Africa began to push forward more that they managed to create a half-chance from a Singh free-kick which Zaccagno dealt with brilliantly.
In the end, the two goals were enough to see Italy register their first win at the tournament, leaving Amajita on the brink of crashing out with one game to go.
