Rotation will help Bantwana progress

A clean sweep in the group stages of the Cosafa Under-17 Women’s Championships has made Bantwana favourites to win the inaugural competition in Mauritius, with a semifinal meeting with Zambia to follow this afternoon.

The South Africans ended the group phase with a 3-1 victory over Madagascar yesterday after the 28-0 thrashing of the Seychelles and a 5-1 thumping of Botswana in the opening two games. The wins saw Bantwana finish on top of Group B with nine points after three games and scoring a staggering 36 goals.

Going into the Madagascar game, Bantwana coach Siphiwe Dludlu (right) made a number of changes from the first two games, but she was happy with the way her the team played and says their focus is on development.

“It was a great game of football, we made a lot of changes, especially in key positions. It’s all about development, so we need to make sure we give players a chance because if we are only going to chase results we will miss the point of development. That is why we brought 20 players, to give them international experience. That is the only way we can give them experience.

“With the scoreline, it was expected because we sacrificed our fluidity and our formation to give players an opportunity because some of them are not at a level where they can play for 90 minutes, so we are slowly introducing them to a game at a high level.”

Facing Zambia will be a good test for Bantwana, but as they head into this match, Dludlu is hoping her players will be fresh for the tie, having not had enough time to rest between the last three games.

“I think more than anything, we have to try and get on the field as fresh as possible. Having only one day’s rest is not enough.”