Timmy T Maranda
South African Under-23 coach David Notoane believes the squad is 80% ready for the Tokyo Olympics.
Speaking after a successful training camp that ended on Monday in Durban, Notoane said the team will be ready when the Olympics start and they will have another training camp in June, leaving 6-8 weeks before the tournament starts.
“This camp allowed us to test players like Ashley du Preez from Stellenbosch and Luke Fleurs from Supersport who are here for the first time,” he said.
“We are 80% where we want to be but the remaining 20% lies in the integration of foreign based players.”
The coach selected 24 locally-based players for the training camp from 21-29 March to expand the pool of players and also to assess the strength and weakness of the team.
The team played Golden Arrows and Maritzburg United in competitive friendlies.
According to coach Notoane the current generation of players like Mbule, Mokoena, Ngcobo, Mashiane, Singh and Foster forms part of the super golden generation.
He said that he would have loved to test the players’ maturity with an international opposition.
“At this level, maturity counts,” he said.
The delayed Tokyo Olympics is now scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan from 23 July – 8 August.
Picture source: @safa.net
