Football
KweséESPN Reporter 7y

South Africa must wait to learn COSAFA foe

Holders South Africa will not know the identity of the first team they play in defence of their COSAFA Castle Cup title until the end of the first round after being drawn against the winners of one of the early round groups.

The tournament, to be played in South Africa's North West province from June 25-July 9, comes immediately before the qualifiers for the African Nations Championship.

Tuesday's draw in Johannesburg pitted Bafana Bafana against the winner of Group A, which is made up of Angola, Malawi, Mauritius and Tanzania, who are the guest country participating in this year's event.

The match will take place on July 2. Botswana, who were runners-up last year, also skip the first phase of the competition and have been drawn against Zambia in the first of the quarterfinals on July 1.

Namibia will play Lesotho the same day. The other quarterfinal is between Swaziland and the winner of Group B on July 2. 

The annual southern African championship begins with the eight lowest seeded countries divided into two groups of four, with a taxing schedule of matches every other day.

Group B is made up of Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles and four-time winners Zimbabwe, who are not among the top seeds after their recent poor performances.

2017 COSAFA CASTLE CUP DRAW

GROUP A Tanzania Malawi Mauritius Angola

GROUP B Mozambique Zimbabwe Madagascar Seychelles

QUARTERFINALS Botswana vs Zambia 

Namibia vs Lesotho

South Africa vs Winner Group A

Swaziland vs Winner Group B

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