17 January 2019 –South Africa’s National Under-20 (Amajita) travelled to Nelspruit on Wednesday (16 January) to continue with their local camp preparations leading up to this year’s CAF Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations set to take place in Niger.

That biennial continental showpiece will run from 2–17 February 2019 in Maradi and Niamey.

In Mpumalanga, Amajita will be based at Ngwenyama Lodge, where they will spend the next four days before they travel back to Johannesburg on Sunday, 20 January.

During their four-day stay Nelspruit, Amajita will face Mozambique’s professional football side, Costa Do Sol FC.

Amajita head coach Thabo Senong stated this encounter will play a key role in helping his side to gage how far they have come in their preparations building up to this year’s continental football showdown.

Amajita are in Group A alongside hosts Niger, Burundi and Niger.

A top two finish in their group will see them forming part of the four African national teams that are to represent CAF in the upcoming 2019 FIFA Under-20 World Cup later in the year.

“We have a confirmed friendly against Mozambican side Costa Do Sol for this coming weekend,” Senong said. “This will be a good exercise because it will help us measure how far we have come in our preparations, and the areas that we also need to work on as well.

“This team (Amajita) has not lost a single match in the last 18 months,” Senong added. “The last time we lost was in 2017 FIFA Under-20 World Cup match against Italy. And this is just a highlight of the kind of players who are brought in to represent the nation. They have character and a fight within them and that is what we want.”

SOURCED FROM THE SAFA WEBSITE.