Draw is cold comfort for unready Amaglug-glug

South Africa U-23(0) 2

Sibeko 70, Mngomeni 80

Malawi U-23(0) 2

Mwafulirwa 64, Ngambi 82

South African under-23 coach Conti Khubeka sighed heavily when the referee blew the final whistle in this All Africa Games first round, first leg clash.

And who could blame him?

In recent weeks the match was on, off and then on again.

It was then cancelled again, until Khubeka heard on Thursday last week that the match was to be played on Sunday, the decision catching everybody by surprise.

"Not knowing whether the match was on or off really messed us up, and it showed in the way the team performed.

"As a team we assembled only on Saturday and did not even have a chance to practice together," he said.

But on Sunday, all that mattered was the fact that Malawi were able to score two vital away goals. Opposing coach Daniel Dzinkambani is confident his side will finish South Africa off in the second leg, to be played some time in October.

"South Africa were lucky to come out of this match with a draw. We outplayed them for most of the match," he said.

"The second leg will be a formality, I don't think the South Africans will be able to handle the 55 000 capacity crowd that will face them.

"Also, I had to think of family pride. My brother, Navigator, was in goal for the Malawi team that lost to Bafana Bafana. He had a bad game, so we needed to do well in this match."

It was only in the final half-hour that the match sprang to life. SA goalkeeper Jason-Lee Barnard made a great stop when he denied Mapopa Msukwa with his feet in the 60th minute. But four minutes later those same feet could only deflect another Mapopa shot into the path of Russel Mwafulirwa, who scrambled the ball home.

The goal silenced the home fans, but had the opposite effect on Amaglug-glug, who started to play well. After a flowing move SuperSport United midfielder Cavann Sibeko drove a great shot from well outside the area to equalise.

All of a sudden there was shift in gears and Lesley Manyathela wormed his way in to the box, beat one defender, then another, who looked to foul him, before laying back a square pass to Thando Mngomeni, who smashed the ball home.

The goal stood after the referee deliberated with his assistant, who had his flag up. The raised flag, however, was to signal the earlier foul on Manyathela. South African hearts were broken two minutes later when after some messy defending Robert Ngambi was able to squeeze the ball past Barnard to make it 2-2.

South Africa (3-5-2):

Barnard

Hendricks (Vilakazi 38)

Evans (Rammile 82)

October

Kometsi

Leremi (Makhanya 70)

Sibeko

Mngomeni

Mahlatsi

Manyathela

Sithole

Malawi (4-4-2):

Padambo

Vasiradi

Sangala

Mophia

Ghavula

Ngambi (Majawa 82)

Mwaluweni

Ligowe

Msukwa (Lungu 82)

Mwafulirwa

Kalua

Cautions: Majawa 89

Referee: Mwanza (Zambia)

Estimated crowd: 5 000