26 July 2017 – The battle for a place in the last four of the 2017 SAB U21 National Championships has intensified after Day 2 of the tournament currently taking place at the NIKE Training Centre in Soweto.

Defending champions, USSA showed their mettle after coming back from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw to maintain their place at the top of Group B. The champions had to then come up against tournament favourites, Free State in a repeat of last year’s final that saw both sides share the spoils in a tightly contested 1-1 draw.

USSA and North West both tied on five points after three matches, making tomorrow’s matches the ultimate deciders of who advances to the knockout stages of the competition. Western Cape sit on four points and could sneak into the semi finals should they win over KwaZulu-Natal who sit bottom of the group.

Meanwhile, Mpumalanga are well on course to making reaching the semi-finals but could be toppled off the top should Northern Cape and Gauteng win their last round of matches on Thursday.

The 2016 semi-finalists stumbled against tournament hosts Gauteng in the first game of the day with a 3-1 loss but did well to redeem themselves with a convincing 2-0 win over Northern Cape.

Mpumalanga are now top of Group A with 9 points followed by Northern Cape who are tied with Gauteng with six points.

SAB U21 National Championships Day 2 (Click here)

Day 3 Fixtures:

Gauteng vs Limpopo                             11h00

Eastern Cape vs Northern Cape          11h00

Western Cape vs KwaZulu-Natal         13h30

North West vs USSA                            13h30