SA National Development Team booted out of Cosafa

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Pretoria - The defending champions of the Cosafa senior challenge, the South African National Development Team has been booted out of the tournament by hosts Zimbabwe.

South Africans lost 3-2 on penalties to Zimbabwe in Harare on Wednesday after the match finished one-all in regulation time.

Lennox Bacela had put the visitors ahead in the 37th minute before the hosts equalised in the 54th minute through Phillip Mafuru.

The match went straight to penalties and South Africa's players who missed the penalty are Mduduzi Nyanda, Wayne Matle and Keamohetse Wolff, while Thuso Phala and Manqoba Ngwenya had no problem hitting the back of the net.

South Africa's goalkeeper Jacob Mokhasi managed to save only one penalty while the other went wide.

South Africa returns to Bulawayo on Saturday to play in the third/fourth place play-off against the losers of the second semi-final, which will be played between Zambia and Mozambique on Thursday.

On Monday, the South African side beat Angola 2-nil in Bulawayo, while Zimbabwe ousted Botswana 1-nil to advance to the last four.

In the final on Sunday, Zimbabwe will face the winner of the second semi-final.