Dludlu sounds a positive note

Bantwana have been handed a tough draw for the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Uruguay, where they will face Brazil, Japan and a team from South America who will only be decided between June 6 and 12.

This will be the second time Bantwana will participate at the global competition, having taken part in the 2010 edition held in Trinidad and Tobago. During that tournament, South Africa finished bottom of their group which included Germany, South Korea and Mexico – having lost all their group games.

And now, heading to Uruguay, Bantwana coach Simphiwe Dludlu admits it is going to be tough, but believes that with thorough preparation – which includes playing many friendlies and research of their opponents – will help her side at the competition.

“We will be up against the best of the best, which makes it clear to us that our planning needs to be vigorous. It must be the kind of preparation that says we know what we want and must include a lot of friendlies. We need to expose our team to international football as much as we can before the tournament,” said Dludlu.

“You can never be fully prepared for a tournament of this magnitude because there is a lot that goes into it, but we need to make sure we are at a certain standard because these are teams who mean business. I’m not out to scare our players, but we can’t afford to be naive and say this is just a draw when the truth is it is not just a draw. We have to do more research about our opponents, watch their games, study them and be able to go back to our games and improve.”

Bantwana will play their first game against the South American representatives on November 13 in Maldonado, before taking on Japan on November 16 at the same venue. Bantwana will then travel to Montevideo to face Brazil on November 20 in their final group match.