Japan and SA start on road to Rio

SA’s Under-23 side will take another step in their preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August when they face Japan on Wednesday.

It is a potential early sighter for both ahead of what could be a quarterfinal meeting if both make it out of their respective pools.

It is a useful exercise for the Japanese‚ who must contend with Nigeria in their first round pool.

“We haven’t had too many matchups against African teams so this will be an excellent opportunity to test ourselves‚” Japan coach Makoto Teguramori said.

“It’ll be a training match‚ not a sendoff. We’d like to have a game that will make people anxiously await the matches at the Rio Games.”

Although SA also have an Asian opponent in Iraq‚ their style is much different to Japan’s.

Japan have a locally based squad for the match‚ having not called up their two Under-23 stars‚ Yuya Kubo (Young Boys‚ Switzerland) and Takumi Minamino (Red Bull Salzburg‚ Austria).

SA’s preparation for Rio has been adequate — they lifted the Cosafa Cup on Saturday having seen off the senior national sides of Lesotho‚ Swaziland and Botswana — but this is likely to be a step up again in terms of ability.

They scored an impressive nine goals against those teams but conceded four times and defensively looked inept at times. It will be the major area of concern before the tournament in Brazil.

“The game against Japan is crucial in that it will help check how far we have come and what more needs to be done‚” coach Owen da Gama said.

“A win will keep the positive momentum in the team going.”

Impressive midfielder Lebogang Phiri has not travelled with the squad as he returned to Denmark to his club Brondby to start their Uefa Europa League campaign away to Icelandic side Valur on Thursday.

SA and Japan do have an Under-23 history, including at the Olympic Games. They met in 2000 as SA lost 2-1 in their opening game. They went on to beat Brazil 3-1 in their second game‚ but another defeat to Slovakia meant they crashed out in the first round.

At the Festival Espoirs de Toulon in France two years later, Japan were 3-0 winners.

The last two meetings‚ in Toulon (2005) and Qatar (2007), resulted in 1-0 wins for SA. TMG Digital