The South African u17 National team will go into their opening match of the 2015 FIFA World Cup U-17 high in confidence following their 1-0 win over New Zealand.

The South African u17 National team will go into their opening match of the 2015 FIFA World Cup U-17 high in confidence following their 1-0 win over New Zealand in their final international friendly match which was played on 12 October 2015 in Santiago, Chile.

This was the third and final preparation match out in South America for Coach Molefi Ntseki’s charges, ahead of them travelling to their World Cup base camp in Concepcion, Chile tomorrow evening as they continue counting down to the historic first ever World Cup U-17 participation by South Africa.

“There is a lot of progress in terms of tactical periodization going into the World Cup. We needed this type of a match to test our strength. Today’s match was very physical but the boys managed to cope. There are areas that still need to be addressed ahead of our first match against Costa Rica; such the protecting a lead, which we managed to do. We also need the boys to focus during critical phases of the match,” said coach Molefi Ntseki.

South Africa are in group E of the 2015 FIFA World Cup U-17, and will take on Costa Rica on 19 October 2015, followed by Korea DPR on 22 October 2015 and Russia on 25 October 2015 to conclude the group stage matches.