Amajimbos had a good start against the Asians and got a penalty early on that was well taken by defender Thendo Mukumela, but it was downhill from there despite Kuk Hyon getting his marching orders for the foul that resulted in the spot-kick. snl24.com/kickoff looks at what went wrong.
POOR DECISION-MAKING
Statistics show that Amajimbos controlled the match with 58% ball possession. However, they failed to string together good passes and instead they lost possession due to poor passing of the ball with players like Simon Nqoi coming to mind in this regard. To be fair, Nqoi was showing the willingness to attack down the right but, crucially, many of his crosses were intercepted by the opposition.
WAYWARD SHOOTING
Amajimbos’ poor shooting was costly. In all, Amajimbos had 29 attempts at goal and only six were on target. Midfielder Athenkosi Dlala again looked solid defensively, but he failed on many occasions to even get a save out of Korea DPR goalkeeper Chol Song, because most of his attempts at goal were well off target. Disappointing all round.
TOO MUCH SPACE IN MIDFIELD
Despite the Koreans being a man down, they were able to counter attack because Amajimbos midfielders attacked in numbers and failed to track back quickly to help defend which exposed the defence and resulted in Korea DPR creating lots of good scoring opportunities. The likes of captain Nelson Maluleke didn’t come to the party and truth be told, Sibongakonke Mbatha appeared to be the only one trying to make things happen.
STRIKERS HELPING OUT OPPOSITION
Amajimbos’ main striker Khanyisa Mayo played the better part of the match with his back to Korea’s goal and whenever he challenged for the ball in the air, he, more often than not, headed it backwards and that didn’t only make it easy for the Koreans to defend, but also to launch attacks. In the end, they had better chances than Amajimbos.
READ: Ntseki clings to World Cup hope
Amajimbos’ next match is a must-win against log leaders Russia on Sunday. Ntseki's side need to beat Russia by two goals to guarantee progression to the knockout phase. Anything less than a win by a two-goal margin and the calculators will have to come out.