The coach insists her side made huge progress despite losing to the Safa National Women’s National League champions
South Africa U17 women’s head coach Simphiwe Dludlu insists her side can take plenty of positives from their defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies in a friendly on Sunday.
Bantwana are preparing for their second leg match in Johannesburg against Zambia following a 2-0 defeat in the first leg of the first round of the U17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers in Lusaka last week.
The U17 national side bowed 2-1 to the Safa National Women’s League champions in the warm-up tie at Chloorkop at the weekend.
“We a grateful to Sundowns for giving us this match, and allowing us to give all the players a chance to play,” Dludlu told Safa.net.
“I believe we can take many positives from this match and will be using this match as a foundation for the areas we need to work on throughout this week.
“We struggled again in the opening 20 minutes as we did in Zambia but once the players settled into the match they gave us the results we were looking for.
“We opted for a stronger opposition so we can test our weaknesses and we decided to play this match so early in the week to try and shock the players straight into a game situation.
“We will be using the rest of the week to work on our tactical approach, taking in the pressure and trying to dominate play.”
The reverse fixture in Johannesburg takes place on March 14.
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