Khumalo ‘over the moon’ after Amajimbos reach World Cup last-32

South Africa Under-17 head coach Vela Khumalo has expressed joy after his squad advanced to the knockout stages of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Qatar.

Amajimbos reached the last-32 round of the competition despite losing 3-1 to Italy in their final group-stage game on Sunday. This was after they finished second in Group A, behind Italy.

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They became the first South African team in their age group to progress past the group stage of the World Cup.

Khumalo’s charges got off to a bad start when the Italians took the lead after just four minutes, courtesy of a goal from Samuele Inacio.

Shaun Els netted the equaliser for Amajimbos just after the half-hour mark. But Antonio Arena regained Italy’s lead ten minutes into the second half, before Inacio completed his brace three minutes later to put the game beyond Amajimbos’ reach.

Speaking after the game, Khumalo said he was over the moon for reaching their target, which was to qualify for the knockout stages of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup.

“Look, I’m over the moon. I’m happy, the team is happy, everyone is happy, and I should think the South Africans [are also happy]. The support that we got during the game under the circumstances, we made it through to the knockout stages,” said Khumalo.

“It is the target that we set for ourselves. When we left, we said, ‘when we leave, no matter what, but let’s go to the knockout stages and take it from there’.

“Without getting into the game itself, we have reached one goal, one step. And surely, we’ll go and plan better and try to get positive results going forward,” he added.

Khumalo has come under a bit of stick for chopping and changing his team during the competition. But the Amajimbos coach says there is a valid reason for doing that.

“People don’t know this, and I think I need to make it very clear that we don’t necessarily have defenders. People are saying, ‘Why chop and change?’.

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“It’s injuries after injuries. Look at our captain [Kamohelo Mareletse], we’re playing him while he’s carrying an injury. And we keep on changing our centre-backs while we’re supposed to build it from one team to another. But most of our players are injured and we can’t play them. That’s why we chop and change.”