{"id":86100,"date":"2025-11-03T18:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=86100"},"modified":"2025-11-03T18:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:00:06","slug":"down-a-man-south-africa-beats-bolivia-in-u17-fifa-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=86100","title":{"rendered":"Down a man, South Africa beats Bolivia in u17 FIFA World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The u17 South African national team<\/strong>, known as Amajimbos<\/strong><\/em>, recorded their first-ever FIFA World Cup<\/strong> victory with only 10 players on the field, beating Bolivia<\/strong> 3-1 on Monday, in Qatar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Coach Vela Khumalo’s<\/strong> squad faced an early setback when Sive Pama<\/strong> was sent off in the first half, leaving South Africa a man down with more than half the game to go.<\/p>\n

However, the team quickly responded positively after Pama’s ejection.<\/p>\n

Cape Town City’s Emile Witbooi, a member of the SuperSport Schools Class of 2024<\/strong><\/a>, scored the opening goal of the contest, with a searing counterattack catching Bolivia off guard.<\/p>\n

From the first whistle, the Bolivians defence appeared vulnerable, and South Africa probed and exploited weaknesses by attacking down the flanks through the side’s wings, which was a key strength of Khumalo’s strategy.<\/p>\n

At the start of the second half, with Amajimbos leading 1-0, the coach made a couple of substitutions, removing Teboho Mlangeni<\/strong> and Selywn Stevens<\/strong> and replacing them with Lebohang Dlamini<\/strong> and Alwande Booysen<\/strong>, affectionately known as Bhubesi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their introduction had the desired effect, particularly from the Lamontville Golden Arrows<\/strong>‘ wing, Booysen, who set up Neo Bohloko <\/strong>for Amajimbos’ second goal.<\/p>\n

While South Africa enjoyed attacking success, they were also subjected to some defensive scares and committed a number of errors that could have led to Bolivian goals.<\/p>\n

Eventually, one of those mistakes resulted in a penalty for the South Americans and Jes\u00fas Maraude <\/strong>punished South Africa by slotting the opportunity past goalkeeper, Lwandiso Radebe<\/strong>, who had pulled off some outstanding saves.<\/p>\n

Only one goal separated the sides, but Shaun Els<\/strong> made sure of the win for Amajimbos by netting in additional time to make it 3-1.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s next group stage clash is on Thursday, when they take on the host nation, Qatar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The u17 South African national team, known as Amajimbos, recorded their first-ever FIFA World Cup victory with only 10 players on the field, beating Bolivia 3-1 on Monday, in Qatar. Coach Vela Khumalo’s squad faced an early setback when Sive Pama was sent off in the first half, leaving South Africa a man down with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":46044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}