3 September 2024 – The South African U17 Men’s National Team had to dig deep to overcome Algeria in their opening match of the FIFA U17 Talent Development Scheme (TDS) 6 Nations Tournament out in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Amajimbos opened the scoring in the 8th minute of the match with a beautifully constructed goal by Selywyn Stevens, but went on to concede against Algeria two minutes later.
The South Africans committed several defensive errors in the first half and found themselves 3-1 down by the 35st minute of the match.
Neo Bohloko stepped up and scored South Africa’s second goal in the 40th mintue from a set-piece after Emile Witbooi was fouled just outside the box.
Sive Pama managed to get the team back into the game with a goal in the 43rd minutes after the ball fell in his path, and he made no mistake in converting to take the match into halftime at 3-3.
The second half was one-way traffic, although Algeria did get a few chances at goal.
Bohloko got his brace of the match after a layover pass by Witbooi in the 53rd minute Witbooi, who was a crowd favourite, got his brace with two beautifully created goals in the 61st and 67th minutes of the match.
Algeria had no answers to the creativity of South Africa in the second half but managed to slot one more goal past goalkeeper Luke Holden in the dying mintues of the game.
Selwyn Stevens did not want to be left out of the books of history as he scored his second goal of the match in additional time, to give South Africa a 7-4 victory against the North Africans.
Head Coach Vela Khumalo was happy that the team scored goals but raised a few concerns.
“We have skillful players, but we still have a lot of work to do. I am very unhappy about some aspects of the game and the fact that we conceded four goals from our own mistakes,” said Khumalo.
“We are working with young kids and we know that there is still a lot of work to be done, which is why we are happy to be part of this tournament as we continue to prepare for our qualifier tournament later this year.”
Amajimbos will now turn their attention to the next match against Tanzania, which will be played on Thursday, 5 September 2024 at Centre Technical Nationale Bingerville at 10h00.
