Safa President pleased with Under-17 team progress at World Cup in Qatar

Danny Jordaan has lauded the national Under-17 team for reaching the round of 32 knockout stages of the World Cup currently underway in Qatar.

The South African Football Association President says the team’s mistakes cost them against Italy when they lost 3-1 but that he hopes they will learn from those errors.

“The quality of both teams – Italy and South Africa – was very high,” Jordaan told Safa media.

“Of course South Africa made a few mistakes and it’s suicidal if you make mistakes at this level, but I’m sure that they’ve learned through that process.

“But if you look at our team and you look at the U17s of Italy you find some of those players are already playing in the upper levels and the top leagues in Italy, while in South Africa we are not giving these boys a chance at the higher levels. But I think that they’ve grown through this tournament and become a better team and better individuals in the team.”

Amajimbos will play Japan on Saturday at 4.30pm.