South Africa U-20 Hold First Training Session in Poland

South Africa’ national U-20 team held its first training session on Monday evening, hours after arriving in Poland.

They flew out of Saudi Arabia on Sunday to Hotel Marathon Business & Sports Centrum training grounds in the Polish city of Szamotuly, following a 22-hour trip which involved two connecting flights.

South Africa are in camp to prepare for FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament that takes place from May 23 to June 15, where they are pitted in Group F alongside Argentina, Korea Republic and Portugal

Last month, they played two friendly matches against Saudi Arabia on 23 and 26 April which gave coach Thabo Senong the needed information on which areas they still need to improve on leading up to the world footballing event.

“We had a very good preparation phase in Saudi Arabia. We played against a side which enjoys dominating the ball, which was a very good test for us,” Senong said.

“Sure we won our second friendly match against them (2-1) after having suffered a defeat in the first (1-0). However, our main objective was to give as many players as possible a run and see what they could offer the team moving forward. And I am just happy that we were able to do just that.”

In the last international friendly match before the World Cup, Amajita will be in Ukraine where the two nations will face each other on 18 May.

At the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, the top two in the group will proceed to the knockout stages of the tournament.