13 November 2018 – The South African women’s national U17 team will begin their quest for the country’s first ever FIFA World Cup title with a match against Mexico at  Estadio Domingo Burgueño Miguel in Uruguay on Tuesday, 13 November 2018.

Kick-off is at 17:00 local time which will be 22:00 in South Africa.

The two teams have met once in this tournament back in 2010 and Mexico thumped Bantwana 4-0 in a group match.

Bantwana coach Simphiwe Dludlu and her technical team believe they have prepared adequately for this match with the help of video reviews and tare well aware of what they will be coming up against.

“We are anticipating anything and already had one or two sessions under the rain and handled it pretty well” said Dludlu

“Obviously there will be a tactical approach on how we want to exploit the conditions. Do we want to play it behind or which space do we want to expose. The first 10 minutes will be very crucial to see how they want to play, if they want to play a high line or sit back,” added Dludlu

The Uruguayan weatherman predicts a rainy match day however coach Dludlu believes the team will cope under any kind of conditions.

“We know that they have got the height and they did well in their qualifiers, beating Canada in the semi-finals and losing to USA in the final 3-2. It shows character and longevity so in terms of tournament experience there are ahead because we last played a tournament in July but that doesn’t mean there are superior.

Bantwana held their last training session on Monday, 12 November in the morning and everyone is fit.

Midfielder Karabo Dhlamini is suspended for the opening game after being sent off in the qualifier against Morocco.