6 November 2018 – The South African national U17 Women’s team, Bantwana lost 3-0 to Uruguay in an international friendly match played at Parque Capurro in Montevideo on Monday 5 November 2018.

The match offered both countries an opportunity to test their preparedness ahead of the start FIFA U17 World Cup set to take place between November 13 and 3 December 2018.

South Africa began the match like a house on fire and dominated Uruguay and had some shots at goal but found the hosts goalkeeper unmoved.

Bantwana continued to pile pressure on Uruguay and against the run of play, the home team broke away on transition and the ball fell in the path of Belen Aquino who fired past the advancing goalkeeper Kaydee Windvogel for the opening goal of the match in the 26th minute.

The match went to halftime with Uruguay leading but in terms of performance the match looked firmly on the balance.

At the start of the second half, Uruguay hit the ground running and straight from kickoff, the ball was played for Sasha Larrea who pummeled the ball forward and over the Bantwana keeper who was off the line for the second goal of the match.

Coach Simphiwe Dludlu made changes to re-energize the team and they looked to be working their way back into the match but it was a little too late as the hosts sat back and absorbed the pressure.

With four minutes of regulation time left a lapse of concentration at the back allowed Juliana Viera to latch on a cross and head it home for Uruguay’s third goal.

Bantwana coach Simphiwe Dludlu admitted the score is a cause for concern however they will take some good lessons from the match and also it shined some light on arreas that they need to work on at training before their first match of the tournament against Mexico on November 13.

“I was excited to see them play actually because it gives us all the answers we needed,” said Dludlu.

“This being a real international friendly, the resistance, a team that’s organized, the hosts so for me was exciting to see the girls show character and play. We needed to be tested after coming from a match where we won 7-0 against a club and now we are up against a national team that is hosting that has been longer in camp and has been play a lot of international friendlies. We lost but there is a lot of important elements that I got from the game and it will be easy to teach further before the start of the World Cup,” added Dludlu.