Zambia stand in way of South Africa U17 AFCON dream

Amajimbos face high-riding Zambia in the 2024 COSAFA U17 Men’s Championship semi-finals at University of Johannesburg’s AW Muller Stadium in Auckland Park on Wednesday at 15h00. 

The winner will clinch qualification to the 2025 CAF U17 Men's AFCON in Cote d'Ivoire, before earning a chance to claim to regional title in the final set for Thursday.

"We need to be very shrewd, we need to be careful of what we're saying, and we are capable of seeing all these moments," said Khumalo.

"But it is entirely on the boys – we have done so much so far with the boys, and it is entirely up to them to win it for themselves.

"We have done everything that we could, and they have also done everything that they could, so it is the last hurdle – if we win this, we will be happy and we'll be saying we're going to AFCON."

Despite winning all three of their group matches – scoring 10 and conceding only two goals, the Kaizer Chiefs youth mentor says the tournament has given them lessons to ponder on ahead of the last-four encounter, noting some positives and negatives.

"Positives are that we scored goals, and in that critical phase of the game – the first 15-20 minutes, we always say we must have goals, which we managed," he added.

"The negatives would then be that we did not want to concede, and we conceded [two] goals, so we then go back and say, where did we go wrong? How did we concede? And all of that.

"But I think you noticed that we even changed our goalkeeper, just for others to have a run as well, which I'm positive about to say, each and every player in this team played some minutes and have that in their legs."

READ: Vela Khumalo lauds Amajimbos as project takes shape