ACTING Head coach of the South African u17 Women’s National Team (Bantwana) Maude Khumalo say her team is up for the challenge against Nigeria's Flamingoes after she said she was excited at the prospects of playing against their Nigerian counterparts in a FIFA u17 World Cup Jordan 2016 qualifier.She told Safa.net on Monday: “We have just finished our final training session ahead of our trip to Abuja. Playing against Nigeria has never been an easy task, but we are up for the challenge. We are not going to put too much pressure on the girls because this will be their first ever international match after Zambia pulled out in the previous round,” said Khumalo.“We are going to Nigeria with a positive attitude. We will keep the players motivated and we want them to learn as much possible from this encounter ahead of the return leg in a fortnight’s time.”
The u17 FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place in Jordan from 30 September to 21 October 2016.
South Africa qualified for the same event back in 2010, held in Trinidad and Tobago but could not get out of the group stages. This time around they would like to better that performance, but first they need to fight off the challenge from the Flamingos of Nigeria in the qualifiers.
The two nations meet on Saturday, 12 March 2016 at the Abuja National Stadium in Nigeria, while Bantwana travel to Abuja tonight.
The return leg will be played at Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa on Saturday, 26 March 2016.
