19 September 2026 – The South African U20 Men’s National team, Amajita, are confident ahead of their opening clash against Lesotho in the CAF U20 Men’s Africa Cup of Nations COSAFA qualifier in Mozambique on Saturday.
Kickoff is at 12h00 at the Zimpeto Stadium.
The South Africans will have a target on their back as the defending regional champions who went on to conquer the continent in their age group in the AFCON back in 2024.
Head Coach Raymond Mdaka has selected 23 players for the 2026 edition of the COSAFA CUP but will be without the Cape Town City duo of Emille Witbooi and Cayden Fortune in the first match due to club commitments.
The 2024 Champions assembled for a training camp over a week ago to prepare for the tournament.
“Day by day we look better and we are looking for some improvement especially on areas where we want to see how we play. The boys look sharp and fortunately we don’t have any injury, it’s just for us to go all out and put in everything that we have, but in terms of our preparation we look much better than when we met a few days ago,” said Mdaka at their final training session in Mozambique.
“Like I always say it is going to be a challenge for any other team to play against us but all we need to do is to focus on each game. For you to progress to the next stage you need each and every point, so we’re not going to take any country light, they’ve all prepared like us, so we must just do our best because whatever game we play, we are playing for a win.”
Former U17 midfielder Lazola Maku has graduated to the U20 team where he has been appointed captain of the team.
“We arrived yesterday (Thursday) and have already had two training sessions, I think the energy is very high, the preparations have gone well, we needed to fix some things in our game and we did. We are feeling positive and I think we are ready for tomorrow’s game. We are focused on what we have to do and it’s going to be very important to win the first game so it can set the tone for the tournament,” said Maku.
Amajita have been drawn in Group B alongside Lesotho, Angola and Eswatini, and will be eager to finish top of the table to progress to the next round of competition. Only the three group leaders advance to the semi-finals and will be joined by the best second best.
The finalists will book their tickets to the AFCON next year in Ghana, where the top four finishers will qualify and represent the African continent at the FIFA U20 Men’s World Cup set to be played in Azerbaijan also in 2027.
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