South Africa’s national U17 team saw their world cup dream come crumbling down after a crushing 3-0 defeat to Japan in the Round of 32 at the 2025 U17 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Vela Khumalo’s charges had the better of the chances in the early exchanges and came close to taking the lead as Selwyn Stevens took a shot which was pushed for a corner by the Japanese goalkeeper.
Neo Bohloko got the best chance for SA in the 15th minute but shot wide with just the goalkeeper to beat. He then followed that up with a flipped shot six minutes later to get the best out of the Japan goalkeeper.
Despite a stellar performance from Lwandiso Radebe, the SA goalminder was let down by his defence which was bridged in the 47th minute through Hiroto Asada.
Minato Yoshida added the second in the 59th minute before Shota Fuji completed the rout in the 72nd minute.
For South Africa the dream came to an end while Japan march on into the last 16.
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