Senong shorn of stars
U-20 WORLD CUP: WEAKENED SQUAD TO FLY OUT, BUT COACH HAS A PLAN
Amajita boss adamant his best players will follow.
Coach Thabo Senong and Amajita may once again travel to a competition with some of the players expected to join the national team at a later stage due to club commitments.
As was the case earlier in the year, Amajita travelled to Zambia for the Caf Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations without the exciting Phakamani Mahlambi of Bidvest Wits who was out with a longterm injury. The winger, who is getting regular game time at his club, joined the squad after the team played their first game at the competition and had to come back to this country before the tournament ended.
This time around, it’s not only Mahlambi who might not make the flight to Asia on Wednesday next week for the Under-20 Fifa World Cup in South Korea, as Teboho Mokoena of SuperSport United, Grant Margeman of Ajax Cape Town and Mahlambi’s teammate at Wits, Reeve Frosler, are all tied to club duty in the Absa Premiership for their respective teams.
However, having selected players who will represent the country at the global competition, Senong is adamant that a solution will be found to enable him to get all the players he called up.
“As a technical team all was required for us was to identify the best 21 players in the country, it was not easy. We worked hard. We selected the players and submitted the names to the management.
“But when it comes to the release of players then it is in the hands of our technical director Neil Tovey, it is in the hands of our CEO Dennis Mumble,” the Amajita coach said after announcing his squad in Soweto yesterday.
With the team leaving 10 days before the start of the tournament, Senong emphasised it was important for the players to acclimatise to the conditions in Asia and said they had organised a friendly match with Costa Rica. Midfielders: