Bamako assignment for Masango
Bamako assignment for Masango

Posted in News on Apr 07, 2011.

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Mandla Masango is confident that the South Africa u23 will be able to secure their passage to the next phase of Olympic Qualification when they face their Libyan counterparts in the return leg of an Olympic qualifying game on Saturday.



Amaglug Glug hold a two goal lead from the first leg which was played in Daveyton on March 27 which they won 4-2, and will travel to Mali to face the Libyans as the North African Nation is currently in the midst of a civil uprising.



Despite South Africa holding an aggregate lead Masango who was on target in the first leg believes that they will have their work cut out for them, “we know going there with the plan to defend our lead is not a good idea because taking such an approach would be dangerous.



We will be looking to attack and obviously score more goals and look towards going through with a good victory, Libya were tough to play against in the first leg and they will be the same once more. So if we sit back we will only be looking for problems”



Masango who has campaigned in West Africa previously with the South Africa u20 team has some experience with the conditions in that part of the continent and is expecting the game to be played in warm weather.



“Generally in West Africa the climate varies dramatically from place to place, sometimes the city experiences high humidity and other times we have played in a lot of rain. This game is going to kick off in the early part of the evening in Mali and we have been told to expect temperatures in the lat 30’s.”



As Masango will be away on international duty he will be missing out on the Amakhosi’s Nedbank Cup game against Wits this weekend, he did start Chiefs Absa Premiership game against the students on Wednesday evening and set up Reneilwe Letsholonyane for Chiefs equalizer.



As he explained he is looking to build on that performance when he returns to action for Chiefs next week, “it’s always good to help your team get back into a game so I was pleased that I managed to assist with the goal.



If I look at my overall performance against Wits I will say that I can still give more for the team and hopefully contribute with a goal or two in the coming weeks”.



South Africa U23 game against Libya is scheduled to kick off at 20h00 South African time this Saturday (9th April 2011).

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