David Notoane is a man of strong faith, for it takes really strong and unwavering faith to believe that the SA Under-23 side can go to Congo Brazzaville and come back victorious.
The thing about faith is, it sometimes entails believing in things that have no proof of existence, and when it comes to the national U23 side, there was no proof in their performance on Thursday that they can go to Congo and get a positive result.
Congo played with a lot of tactical maturity, and used their physical superiority to their advantage to nullify the threat of the technically gifted South African team.
They did that without breaking much of a sweat, one can only imagine how they will be even a better side in their own backyard, with the away goal at their advantage and a desperate SA U23 team that is bound to make a lot of mistakes in their for a miraculous victory.
But Notoane has faith in his team, and he believes they can go to Congo and come back unscathed, despite the obvious deficiencies in his side's performance.
"We lacked a little bit of the experience, maturity and the technical finesse to find the right pass, and the right movements to penetrate them. But they are young guys, I am happy that we didn't lose, which is very important that we got a 1-1 draw, but I think we are capable of doing away and get a result," Notoane said after the game.
He was disappointment with the way his team defended.
"The way we conceded, I'm very disappointed because it's a lapse of concentration moment, we've got two big boys, and the striker is in between them. We didn't stop the cross from coming in, which is something that we knew, that they will be playing out [on Msane's side].
On Samkelo Zwane and Kgaogelo Chauke's performances:
"In terms of the intensity of the game, the physicality of the game, the tempo, some players were struggling a little bit.
"Zwane [Samkelo], Kgaogelo [Chauke] coming in, didn't show the energy that we would have wanted on the ball, and show his quality, but again we just thought let us give him a chance, and see how he copes with the physicality of these guys [Congo]."
On what they need to improve on before Monday:
"But the skills are there, the football intelligence is there, but we are going to require more than the technical ability, but more aggression, the strength, and the fight, more especially the fight."
The fact of the matter is Monday comes to soon for the improvements required for Notoane's boys to win in Congo.
But miracles do happen in football, with Notoane's faith, maybe, just maybe, the unthinkable may happen.
Image credit: Prince Sobayeni Sports Twitter.
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