South Africa, alongside fellow African representatives Zambia, Senegal and Guinea, will join the hosts and 19 other countries in the tournament to make up the 24-nation event that will be spread across six host cities.
Amajita booked their place in the prestigious event when they defeated Sudan 3-1 in the final Group B clash of the 2017 CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations played in Lusaka on Sunday.
Tovey says they have made the country proud.
“It’s quite a great achievement, not just for the U-20 side, but for South African football in general,” he said. “This shows there is gradual development and with junior teams qualifying for major tournaments, that goes to show the future is really bright.
“The U-17 boys’ team went to Chile for the World Cup two years ago, and now about eight players who qualified that team are in the current U-20 squad that has booked their place in South Korea.
“This is what we mean when we talk about development. Just last year the U-23 team went to the Rio Olympics, and to continue the natural progression of our national teams, Bafana Bafana must qualify for Russia 2018,” added Tovey.
The former Bafana Bafana captain said now that the U-20 team has reached their goal, there is no more pressure on the team in Zambia.
“The qualification for the World Cup was key, so anything beyond that is a bonus,” he said. “Yes, obviously you want to go all the way but now you are against the host nation, which makes things more difficult. They must go out there and do the best they can. All the pressure was about qualifying for the World Cup.”
Tovey said in terms of where the team wants to go in future, it was imperative to use the remaining matches to work on preparing for the World Cup.
“Yes, you obviously want to win the AFCON, but you have done the job you set out to do. The boys must also not think about the previous matches against Zambia where they lost, this is a completely different game altogether.”
In three matches at the AFCON, Amajita have scored nine goals – three per game – but have also conceded a total of six, something that does not sit well with the technical director, himself a solid defender in his time.
“We have been pretty good in this tournament, the strikers have done their job even though at times we could have scored more, but that is not a problem,” he said. “The only challenge is that we can’t keep a clean sheet. We have to defend a lot better, we have to organise ourselves collectively as a team, not just the defence but all the way from the strikers.”
Tovey said the players have to get tighter because if one wants to play in the World Cup, you can’t give away so much space.
“We have to start working now on our ability to defend properly. From what I have seen, there are too many gaps between departments when we defend but I hope they will be more compact going forward.
“This is not about playing a defensive game, but being more organised when we lose the ball and how we adjust so we can assist one another. At the moment the communication seems poor in some areas and needs to be made better.”
South Africa takes on hosts Zambia in the first semi-final on Wednesday at Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.
Senegal and Guinea will contest the other semi-final on Thursday at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Kick-off for both matches is 18h00.