Dolly won’t do friendlies
STAR EARMARKED FOR RIO
KEAGAN Dolly will definitely be made available for the Olympic Games, but not for friendly warm-up matches, said Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane clarifying his understanding of the key attacker’s utilisation in the coming weeks.
PSL Player of the Season nominee Dolly has already been excused from participation in the Cosafa Cup for a Bafana Bafana team comprising mostly of the South African U-23 players who will take part in the Olympics in August.
The winger will play in Sundowns’ CAF Champions League group stage match against ES Setif in Algeria late tomorrow night.
Mosimane said he wants Dolly to be part of the U-23 team at the Rio Olympics, but his proviso is that the player is not called up to warm-up friendlies such as the match against Japan on June 29 – and that the player is allowed to turn out for Sundowns in the Champions League until their home game against Zamalek on July 27.
Bafana’s first match of the Olympics is against hosts Brazil on August 4. “I’m happy that I read in the newspaper that the U-23s won’t call Keagan to play friendly games.
“But as I have told you, I was at the airport as Bafana coach and the players were taken from me. I remember Kaizer Chiefs taking the players – Bobby Motaung was taking them like this [makes a pulling motion].
“And the Bafana players on the bus were saying, ‘But we want to go and play football’. And it was not fair and it’s not nice,” he said.
“So, I don’t want that situation again. I was a Bafana coach – I know the frustration of club versus country. So I don’t want to be sitting here and behaving differently. “I’ll never allow [Bafana coach] Bra Shakes [Mashaba], [SA U-23 coach] Owen da Gama or anyone to go through that. Sundowns players must be available.
“I want Keagan to play at the Olympic Games. He must play in the opening game against Brazil.
“But Owen must understand that Keagan has to play the Zamalek game before that match. Then it’s a win-win situation.
“Then he’ll miss our last two games of the Champions League group stage. And those are crucial games for us. Also, I played football in Europe. How can I deny Keagan the opportunity to see the world?”
Playing at the Olympics, Dolly will miss Downs’ final two Champions League (ACL) group stage matches against Setif in Pretoria on August 13 and Enyimba in Nigeria on August 23 or 24.
Mosimane said there is a concern at the amount of games Dolly is being expected to play. The winger will have no real off-season because of Downs’ participation in the ACL and the Olympics. Dolly announced himself as a new Bafana star with two goals scored from range in a 4-0 Africa Cup of Nations away qualifying win against Gambia this month.