9 January 2018 – Head coach of the South African U20 Women’s national team, Maud Khumalo has lauded the strong character of her youthful U20 squad that is set to take on Nigeria in the final round of the 2018 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
Basetsana take on the West Africans at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday, 13 January at 15h00 with the return leg pencilled for the weekend of 27-28 January in Nigeria.
Basetsana have been bullish in their World Cup qualification journey, something to be highly commended according to Khumalo who says most of her squad had to cope with the pressure of writing their matric exams while representing the national team.
“Looking at the majority of the squad, it was mostly matriculants who had to juggle between their academic work as well as the pressure of wearing national team colours. Even with that sort of pressure and stress, we made it to this stage of the qualifiers with a 100% matric pass rate which I am very proud of” said Khumalo.
The former Banyana Banyana player also urged the people of Polokwane to come out in their numbers to support the team in this crucial encounter.
“We are just two matches away from making history and becoming the first South African U20 Women’s side to book a place in a World Cup and therefore urge people in and around Polokwane to come out in their numbers and get behind the team on Saturday”.