Mandla Masango came to the fore over the weekend scoring a brace for the national U-20 team in a friendly match against Botswana. He continued his recent goal-scoring spree for Amajita as he was also on target last month against the Namibians in a friendly.

The 18-year-old who was one of five Chiefs players who featured in the match was a livewire in the left central midfield role he was given to fulfill, twice gave South Africa the lead only for Botswana to find an equalizer after each of his two strikes.

Masango who made his first team debut for Chiefs at the start of the season has set his sights on using the appearances and the game time he gets with the national U-20 team to his advantage, and is hoping to transform his recent good run with them into a good spell at club level.

Masango aims

Masango at 18 still has a lot to offer and believes his recent goal scoring exploits and caps for the national U-20 team will prove invaluable experience for him, as the player who scored on his first team debut in August said. “It is very satisfying to be doing so well with the junior national team, soon the qualifiers for next years FIFA U-20 World Cup begin and I hope I can continue in this way. My hope is to carry on playing well for the U-20 national team and hopefully if I do well here I can starting playing at club level again, and translate this form which is helping to build my confidence”.

Ngobeni clean sheet

Thela Ngobeni indicated that he was another Chiefs keeper in a long line of Amakhosi net minders who will in time to well at club and international level, as he made his debut for Amajita against Botswana. Ngobeni came on in the 55th minute of the match as a substitute with the scores tied at 2-2 and was able to keep his net intact for the 35 minutes that he was on the field, although he found the level of competition high at first Ngobeni did get stuck in and made a good impression.

Speaking of his appearance he said “ the game was being played at a fast pace and we had to deal with a lot of attacks in the time that I was on the field. What was good was to be able to not concede a goal and looking at the way the game was poised at the time I came in, you would have thought that either team would inevitably find a winner soon”.