18 December 2023 – The South African U15 Boys National Team will begin their trip back home this afternoon after a great week out in Rabat, Morocco.
The team participated in the first ever 3 Nations TDS Tournament against Cote d’Ivoire and Morocco where players were exposed to international competition and gained their first national caps.
South Africa lost 4-2 to Cote d’Ivoire on 12 December 2023 in their debut match but came back strong to beat Morocco 3-1 in their second match on 17 December 2023.
“This has been a great experience for the players and the newly formed technical team;” said Head Coach Vela Khumalo.
“We are happy to have accomplished our goal this week, which was to get the players to understand our methodology as a nation.
Overall we conceded 5 goals in the TDS tournament but also scored 5 goals, which is a good indicator of what we need reinforce and correct moving forward. We wanted to establish our playing forms, control matches and impose a possession-based approach characteristic of our South African football DNA.
Again, thanks to FIFA, Cote d’Ivoire and Morocco for affording us the opportunity to introduce our young players to competition at this level.
SAFA Technical Director Walter Steenbok expressed his appreciation to both Cote d’Ivoire and Morocco for the partnership and spoke about the FIFA Talent Development Scheme.
“We are grateful to have been part of this journey in 2023 with FIFA. Our journey with the Talent Development Scheme (TDS) began early this year, where we built a new U15 team through this funding.
We have big plans for this team, which will become our next generation of the U17 for 2025 and special gratitude to both our opponents for partnering with us to make this tournament a success “; said Steenbok.