2 November 2018 – After four days of hard training the South African national U17 women’s team will get to gauge their state of preparedness against Canadian SC, a local women’s football club in a friendly match in Uruguay on Friday 2 November 2018.
Kickoff is set for 15h30 local time, which is 20h30 SA time. The match will be played at Pan de Azukra and you can follow the regular match updates on SAFA’s digital platforms @SAFA_net on Twitter.
Bantwana are currently in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo where they are preparing for the 2018 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup set to kick-off on November 13 with coach Simphiwe Dludlu’s team taking on Mexico.
Dludlu believes winning the friendly would go a long way in keeping the team confident ahead of their World Cup opening match. She said this will be a perfect opportunity to test her team in a real game situation and also try out new tactics.
“More than anything I will be looking at the mental aspect of the players to see if they are ready for the tournament. Are they applying what we have been doing in camp back home and here in Uruguay. For me it’s about seeing which players are ready to start in the tournament,” said Dludlu.
“We have different players, more than one playing in each position and we are trying different formations. So starting with that friendly I want to see the best combinations and which players are rising to the occasion in the game. It is a bit cold here so the players are always mobile which is good for alertness? I will also be looking at where we still need to work on as a team and the individual aspects to see if the players are applying what we have been working on in past few weeks,” added Dludlu.
The friendly against Canadian SC’s U20 team is Bantwana’s first friendly. They next play hosts Uruguay national U17 team in their last warm up match before the tournament gets underway.