Notoane raring to test his U-23s against top sides in Olympics
● SA under-23 coach David Notoane is itching to test his Olympic team against some of the big guns that have already qualified for the 2020 Olympics Games that were last week postponed for a year due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“As soon as the coast is clear as far as this virus is concerned, we must get into it with some of these teams,” said Notoane this week as everyone continued to battle the deadly disease that has derailed many prestigious sporting events worldwide this year.
SA qualified alongside Egypt and Ivory Coast on the African continent in November, but Notoane also has the hosts Japan, France, Spain, Germany, Romania, New Zealand, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Brazil, among the other qualified teams to organise the critical friendly against.
Two teams from the Concacaf region are yet to produce their representatives for the 16-team tournament.
“The indirect benefit of this postponement is the fact that we now have a year to prepare thoroughly, which should make for an exciting competition. We were supposed to be in Japan last weekend to play that country and South Korea, but we had to withdraw because of the virus,” said Notoane of what would have been his team’s first preparatory games after qualifying.
Notoane surprised all and sundry in
February when he produced a list of about 80 players, saying they were all in contention to make a team of around 23 players he will take to Tokyo.
“There’s still maybe another 40 that I left out and people didn’t understand the logic. But if you look at the conditions that we now face, you’ll see that’s the vital exercise. This one year will give us an opportunity to test and assess these players because a lot of them won’t qualify for the next Olympics.”
A relief for Notoane came from Fifa on Friday when the world football governing body confirmed that players aged 24 will be allowed to play in next year’s event as they’re not the ones who caused the postponement. “We all have dreams and I’m sure a lot of these players had dreams,” said the former Santos striker. “So why deny the dream. I’m sure the right decision will be to allow these players to be eligible.”
Tebogo Mokoena, Siyabonga Ngezana, Tercious Malepe, Thabo Cele and Phakamani Mahlambi are some of Notoane’s star players who’ll be 24 next year.