U-20 men’s national team
GOOD day dear reader. I hope you are well as we begin the 3rd month of the year. This is an interesting month in as far as the local football calendar is concerned. The senior men’s national team Head Coach Dominic Kunene has announced the squad that is scheduled to commence the preparations for the upcoming TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) preliminary round qualifier match against Somalia.
This is an indication that there is limited time between now and the match-days. The national team is scheduled to commence the preparations on Monday and train on Tuesday before going to full-time camp on the March 10, 2024. The Under-20 men’s national team’s technical bench will also commence the programme of assembling the squad that will represent the country in upcoming international competitions.
The technical bench of the U-20s will today start the process of selecting players for the national team by implementing the trials at the Eswatini Football Association (EFA)’s Technical Centre in Lobamba. They have invited players who were born as from December 2005 to December 2007 to attend these trials. They must come with their national identity documents/ passports or birth certificates, and outfits in order for them to be in a position to participate in these trials.
The purpose of these trials is to present an opportunity for the participants to be assessed by the technical team in terms of having the potential to be part of the national team. It must be noted that some of the players who played in the COSAFA U-20 Youth Championship in 2022 are no longer Under 20. That was the reason why during the international friendly match against Mozambique during the 50/50 Double celebration the coaches selected some players from the Under-17 national team who played during the last edition of the Region 5 Games in Lesotho.
DISCOVERING NEW TALENT
This is an indication of continuity and it is not a guarantee that the very same players will automatically be part of the U-20 national team for future competitions as they may lose form or the is a possibility that other talent can be discovered considering that some players mature early whilst others do so at a later stage. The selection of the players for the national team is a process that is open to the qualifying players regardless of the league.
Since the EFA have Regional Technical Coordinators, they also play a significant role in this exercise as later in the process, they have to assemble pick teams that will be used in the selection process. If there are players who satisfy the national team coaches, they will be picked for future assessments just like those who will be picked today and tomorrow.
During the previous schools ball games, the national team coaches were regular spectators as they also used these games in identifying and monitoring potential players. This will be the case even this year as they will also monitor the talent that they would have identified. They also do likewise in as far as the development leagues are concerned.
This is an indication on how much work they are having within a very limited period considering that the COSAFA U-20 Youth Championship is scheduled for September 11-22, 2024. It must also be noted that the very same COSAFA U-20 Youth Championship will also act as the TotalEnergies U-20 AFCON Qualifiers. The TotalEnergies AFCON Finals will act as the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. This implies that the technical bench must have enough pool to select the players who will represent the country.
Until next week, football for all and safe life for all.
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