South Africa once again came out tops in the 25th edition of the Cosafa U-20 Championship after a 4-3 penalty shootout win over Zimbabwe Thursday.
The Zambia 2018 final started with the Amajita dominating proceedings but the first half ended barren.
Delic Murimba broke the deadlock after the hour mark for Zimbabwe. This came as a big surprise for the defending champions as they had not conceded from the start of the tournament.
Amajita fought back and got their reward in the 80th minute. Lyle Foster took his chance from close range to force the game into extra time and later penalties where goalkeeper Khubeba took center stage by making two terrific saves from the spot.
Keenan Abrahams got the opportunity to take the fifth penalty for South Africa and he made no mistake. Abrahams calmly slotted in the spot kick to etch his side’s name into the history books once again.
South Africa’s Lyle Foster emerged joint top scorer with five goals.
Lyle Foster is this year's #COSAFAU20 joint top goalscorer with the five goals he scored in this tournament. @BurgerKingZA @COSAFAMEDIA #COSAFAU20 #Amajita pic.twitter.com/QMsxGAk1kU
— SAFA.net (@SAFA_net) December 13, 2018
Promise Mkhuma was also crowned the tournament’s best player.
Promise Mkhuma crowned this year's #COSAFAU20 Player of the Tournament. He played in all of Amajita's matches in this year's edition. @BurgerKingZA @COSAFAMEDIA #COSAFAU20 #Amajita pic.twitter.com/QaqmeUUWM7
— SAFA.net (@SAFA_net) December 13, 2018
The latest Amajita feat will be regarded as a big win for South African football. The team was able to build on the 2-1 victory they had in the final against Lesotho last year to make it their 8th title. The promising South African outfit still have some work to do to catch up with Zambia who are record winners with 10 titles.
