Bantwana are on track for World Cup in Uruguay
SOUTH AFRICA women’s Under17 national team coach Simphiwe Dludlu is convinced that they are almost ready to begin their World Cup campaign. Bantwana are one of the three African countries – the others are Ghana and Cameroon - that have qualified for the global showpiece in Uruguay from November 13 – December 1.
It is Bantwana’s first qualification since 2010, while it’s Dludlu’s first as coach.
“Mentally and physically we are almost there. You want to leave a room for them (the players) to rise to the occasion,” said Dludlu. “We already know who we are playing, but we are not focusing on what the opponent is doing because at the end of the day they’ve got their own brains.”
Bantwana are in Group B alongside Brazil, Japan and Mexico. In this year’s Brics games they played the Brazilians to a goalless draw. The Brics games were followed up by a recent Spain trip where Bantwana recorded a 4-2 win over UD Levante Under-17s and 1-1 stalemate against Valencia CF Under-20s.
“In Spain, we tried playing players in different positions because in youth football we always want to have a single player being able to play in more than one position,” Dludlu said. “The trip proved to be fruitful…and if we compare ourselves to when we started against Botswana and Morocco (in the qualifiers), we can see the improvement as a team.”
Dludlu has also invited Under-20 men’s national team coach Thabo Senong to be part of her technical team. Senong qualified for the 2017 World Cup with his troops, while he’s already booked a spot in the 2019 Afcon in Niger.