Bafana Bafana assistant coach Morena Ramoreboli had nothing praise for the players after securing the COSAFA Cup title on Sunday evening.
The South Africans managed to overcome the Lions of Teranga in a penalty shoot-out after it ended goalless after 120 minutes of football.
"It was not easy, you could even see today. Even those boys who were struggling with injuries, they had to continue fighting , they had to continue playing," the coach told SuperSport TV.
"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 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 secondly, 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 through to the extra-time with the same spirit and honestly speaking, we are very happy."