TotalEnergies AFCON U-20: South Sudan boss James satisfied with maiden appearance

South Sudan coach Peter James says he is satisfied with their maiden appearance the TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations after exiting at the quarter-final stage.

The Bright Stars finished third in Group B to qualify to the quarter-finals of the tournament on their first participation in the tournament which set them up with a clash with Gambia, who topped Group C.

Adama Bojang hit a hat-trick for the Young Scorpions with Moses Jarju and Mahmud Bajo also registering their names on the scoresheet.

The 5-0 defeat at the hands of Gambia sealed their fate but coach James is happy over the impact they made at the tournament.

"I want to congratulate my colleagues from Gambia for the victory. In football everything is possible. We came for the first time and we managed to be in the quarter-finals stage," James said.

"We're satisfied with our result and the performance the boys did with what they have.

"We believe this is our quality and the most important thing for us to go ahead is we need to work on many aspects, we need to improve in our qualities."

Goalkeeper Godwill Yogusuk made some good saves but was at fault for Gambia's fourth goal.

"We made some individual mistakes but football is a game of mistakes," James told journalists.

"Some of the mistakes caused disaster in the team but at the end of the day we need to work hard, we need to perform and make sure we don't commit such mistakes."

"In the second half we rearranged our strategy because I believe that if we had scored in the first ten minutes it could have changed the game.

"That is why we needed to play forward because we were already behind."