Injuries plague Amajimbos ahead of World Cup knockout

After making history by becoming the first SA U-17 team to progress to the last 32 of the World Cup, Amajimbos coach Vela Khumalo is over the moon as they set their sights on further progress.Despite losing 1-3 against Italy in their final match of Group A at the Aspire Academy complex in Al Rayyan, Qatar, on Sunday, Khumalo’s teenagers made it through, as they finished second behind Italy after Bolivia and Qatar played to a draw.SA will face either Brazil or Zambia in the last 32 on Friday.“I’m over the moon; I’m happy, and so is the team and everyone. I should think that even the South Africans, [with] the support we got after the game, everyone is happy,” Khumalo told Safa media.“Under these circumstances, we made it through to the knockout stage. This is one target that we set for ourselves. We said when we leave, no matter what, let’s go to the knockout stage and take it from there.“We’ve reached one goal, one step, and surely we will plan better and try to get a good result as we go forward.”Khumalo claimed that the key to their success was winning their first match, against Bolivia. This helped them win after they drew with Qatari hosts in the second match before losing to Italy.“We said we are going into the knockout stages without looking to break any records or something like that. Winning the first game helped us a lot, and getting a draw in the second game made things easier for us,” He said.“However, people don’t know that we don’t have defenders. It is injury after injury. We keep on changing where we are supposed to keep on building; most of our players are injured, and we can’t play them.“I think it is very important that our people know that we have many injuries; that’s why we chop and change the team. But having to play on Friday, we hope some of the players will have recovered for the match, as most of them came with the injuries from their respective clubs.”Sowetan
2025-11-11 09:43:35