Bafana Bafana assistant coach Morena Ramoreboli praised his side's work rate securing the Cosafa Cup title on Sunday evening.
South Africa ended their five-year drought in the competition to overcome the Lions of Teranga in a penalty shoot-out after 120 minutes of football to lift the title for the first time since 2016.
"It was not easy, but even those boys who were struggling with injuries, they had to continue fighting, they had to continue playing," Ramoreboli told SuperSport TV after the game.
"I think they understood that they are no longer playing for any other thing except the badge, except for the country and they did that very well. I'm so excited, I'm happy.
"Last year we managed to win it (COSAFA Under-17 Championship) with under-17s and here we are again with Bafana today. It's a great achievement. It is through hard work and the support we got from the association, it made things very easy for us.
"In football, we have what we called tactical endurance. We had to rely on them to execute whatever we drilled, even under pressure and there was a stage where I kept on saying to them, 'let's play with our hearts' because I could see they were becoming tired.
“But they had to remember, they can't give up and they had to go through extra-time with the same spirit."
