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South Africa’s penalty king set for Rio dream
- Updated: July 30, 2016
Although Jody February goes to lengths to explain that he is no hero, tens of thousands of South African football fans would beg to differ. After all, it was the young goalkeeper who proved the match winner as his side qualified for this year’s Men’s Olympic Football Tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
Having lost the semi-finals of the CAF Africa U-23 Cup of Nations to Algeria, the Amaglug-glug had one last opportunity to book their ticket to Rio 2016, but to make it to South America, the team needed to beat hosts Senegal in a play-off. Having already lost 3-1 to the west Africans in the tournament’s opening match, it was always going to be a tough ask of the South Africans. And with 15 minutes to go in the scoreless affair, their fate seemed sealed as Senegal were awarded a penalty.
However, February managed to save, and as neither side scored in the remaining time, the match had to be decided on penalties. Again, February came up huge, saving three of the hosts’ four penalties to claim the third-place spot and a ticket to Rio. Only 19 at the time, February downplayed his achievements to FIFA.com. “Of course I can understand that people think I was the hero, but it was really a team effort. It was the whole team that got us to the play-offs. Yes, maybe I saved the decisive penalties, but we really did it together.”
The goalkeeper, who plays his club football for Ajax Cape Town, admits that qualifying for Rio had not been easy. “Of course we were …
continue reading in source www.cafonline.com
