7 May 2019 – South Africa’s National Under-20 (Amajita) side will take on Central South America national side, Panama in a friendly match on Wednesday, 8 May as part of their preparations leading to this year’s upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup.

This encounter will take place at the Hotel Rames’ sporting grounds in Opalenica, Poland at 16h00.

Amajita’s assistant coach Helman Mkhalele expressed his delight over the upcoming fixture, adding that it will help in improving Amajita’s collective performance leading to 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup Poland edition.

In the World Cup, Amajita are pitted in Group F alongside Argentina, Korea Republic and Portugal. A top two finish in that group will guarantee them a place in the knockout stages of the tournament.

The FIFA World Cup tournament will run from 23 May to 15 June.

“We are still marching on, our job is not done yet,” Mkhalele said. “Sure, we have had some positive results in our previous World Cup preparation matches (one defeat and two wins out of the now three friendly matches played); however, our focus is not entirely centred on that.

“We still want to get this team to gel together into a very solid unit than they currently are at the moment. I can safely say that we are on the right track”.

The Bafana Bafana legend also expressed his gratitude to the South African Football Association (SAFA) for organising friendly matches against national sides who will be competing in the upcoming World Cup, adding that these encounters will play a massive role in helping to measure how far they are in their readiness for the world stage.

Panama is the third national side that Amajita will face in a friendly, which will also be competing in the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup as well, after having played against Qatar and Saudi Arabia (twice) in their previous World Cup preparation matches.