South Africa’s youngest girls’ soccer team Bantwana is one of four African teams in the battle for the two remaining African countries to qualify for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup 2014, to be staged in Costa Rica next year.
South Africa join Zambia, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea in the contest to determine the remaining two African slots for the football tournament, to be staged between 15 March and 5 April 2014, after Nigeria booked the first of the three slots.
The FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup will feature 16 countries of which three are from CAF, and the SA U17 Women’s National team will be looking to make their second appearance at the World Cup, when they take on Zambia next weekend (24 November 2013).
Bantwana and Zambia played to a 3-3 draw in the first leg of the final round of the qualifiers, and both teams know what’s at stake with World Cup qualification on their finger tips.
A draw of less than 3-all will be enough to see the South Africans through to the World Cup next year.
Bantwana are banking in making history for themselves again having made their debut appearance in the FIFA World Cup three years ago in Trinidad and Tobago.
With the Bantwana squad on the brink of qualification for the World Cup, head coach Sheryl Botes has said that the upcoming game is very important and a win is all they should play for if they are to cement their victory against Zambia.
“Well we realize how important the game ahead of us is, it’s a do or die qualifier and a win is all we want to play for,” says Botes. “Even a draw could see us through to the World Cup, but we don’t want to settle for a draw, but cement our victory against Zambia.
“Having looked through the DVD of our game against Zambia, there are still several aspects of tactical work that we will look into ahead of the return-leg. Zambians are a strong side but goalkeeping blunders were our biggest unbecoming,” said Botes.
Bantwana assemble for camp at the OR Tambo Garden Court on Sunday, 17 November 2013.
(With editing by gsport)
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