Amajita prepare for next match
The medical team of the South African National U/23 National Team has been working round the clock to assist players in the recovery process following a tough opening Group B match on Sunday (27 November 2011) against Cote d’Ivoire in the CAF U/23 Championship currently underway in Morocco. The South Africans played with 10 men for more than 30 minutes after midfielder Thami Sangweni was red-carded.Team Doctor, Desmond Lamula and Physiotherapist Nhlanhla Maphanga have rested Erick Mathoho for Wednesday’s (30 November 2011) match against Gabon.“Mathoho came into the camp with injury doubts, and we are happy that he played the full match on Sunday against Cote d’Ivoire. We are treating him twice a day as a precaution, but will need to rest him for the Wednesday match,” said Lamula.The medical team has also attended to Sameehg Doutie, Gladwin Shitolo, Ace Bhengu, goalkeeper Brilliant Khuzwayo and Sibusiso Mxoyana.“These players sustained minor knocks in our opening match on Sunday, we are currently treating them because we don’t want to take anything for granted,” added Lamula.Head Coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba says the team has prepared well for the crucial Gabon clash.“We have just finished our last training session before the encounter with Gabon, everything has gone well except for this unfortunate situation with Mathoho. The doctors are working on him and we hope he will recover on time for our final group stages match against Egypt. We have reshuffled the team at the back and prepared them well to keep a solid defence,” explained Mashaba
CAF 2011 Futsal Championship to be held by defending champions
The 2nd African futsal championship wil be held in Libya 2012, this comes after a postponement then withdrawal of Burkina faso from hosting the event which was meant to start at the beginning of April 2011. The defending champions who won it on 2008 and went on to represent Africa in the FIFA Futsal in Brazil 2008,will host the event from 15-17 December 2012. A reminder to all CAF national associates has been forwarded to engage and participate in the event ,the system will be determined once the number of teams particiapaing is known.
Vodacom League teams gear up for Nedbank Cup
The Vodacom League will this weekend (5 – 6 November 2011) take a break from league activities to begin their campaign in the Nedbank Cup, South Africa’s version of the FA Cup where the proverbial David meets Goliath. The Vodacom League teams have already played four matches each in the 2011/2012 season, with the exception of KwaZulu-Natal, nine provinces will battle it out in the preliminary and the first round in one weekend with the second round scheduled for the weekend of 25 and 26 November 2011. In January 2012, the nine Vodacom League provincial winners from will pit their strength against the nine SAB Regional League provincial winners to crown the overall Provincial Nedbank Cup winners. The two teams out of the nine overall Provincial winners will lock horns in a mini play-off scheduled for February 2012 from where the eight remaining sides will join the Nedbank Cup last 32 with Premier Soccer League (PSL) and National First Division (NFD) sides. Therefore, eight teams each from SAFA and the NFD will join the 16 teams from the PSL to play the Last 32 round from the weekend of 2, 3 and 4 March in 2012.
Amajita begins camp in Potch
Amajita assemble today for a 10-day training camp ahead of the annual Cosafa Under-20 Youth Championships scheduled to take place in Botswana from December 1. The training camp takes place at the High Performance Centre at the University of Potchefstroom in the North West.Coach SollyLuvhengo has called up 40 players to camp from which he will select the squad that will represent South Africa.The first three days of camp will be used as trials because only 22 players are needed for the event, and the final cut will be made on Sunday.The coach says he has worked with the bulk of the players in camp, some in the Under 17 National team, while others were part of the Under-12 National Team that went to the World Cup in France in 2003."The Under-20 squad is going into one of the biggest development tournaments in Southern Africa. This is where the team can prove its worth being seeing that we have been grouped with two-time reigning championships, Zambia."My only concern at the moment is that some players may not be available as they will be writing exams, but that is also good in a way, in that education comes first and I am happy these boys are aware. So we will make the most with what we get," said Luvhengo.
Transnet/SAFA School of Excellence getting a facelift
The South African Football Association (SAFA) is forging ahead with its plans to revamp the Transnet/SAFA School of Excellence in Elandsfontein, east of Johannesburg. Headed by Steve Pila, Head of Academies at SAFA, the project has already taken off. The school has produced the likes of BafanaBafana captain and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Steven Pienaar, BafanaBafana and Kaizer Chiefs striker Bernard Parker and Orlando Pirates winger DaineKlate.The school will be transformed into a National Football Academy. To this end, the Association has developed a concept plan that will herald a National Academy System comprising Local Football Association (LFA) Satellites, Regional Centres of Excellence, and Provincial Academies all feeding into the National Academy. A fact-finding mission will be undertaken at the School on Thursday, 20 October 2011. The visit forms the basis of a coordinated implementation process of various departments at SAFA to help the school, and to have a close collaboration between the institute and the Association.The Provincial Academies will be managed by Directors in collaboration with the Provincial Government and SASCOC. Nine schools, one per province, will be identified to serve as an Academy and the preferred schools will be those with a good reputation in sport and education. Forty learners (40), between the ages of thirteen (13) and (16) with football potential will be placed in the schools. “This has been a long time coming. This is one of the best football development projects in the country and as the Football Association we have taken it upon ourselves to ensure it goes back to its glory days. This is the same school that produced stars like Pienaar, Klate and Parker, but over the last few years we haven’t seen any great player coming from the school so we need to do something about it for the future of this country,” said Pila, who pioneered the school in 1994.
SAFA conducts successful FIFA FAP trials
The South Africa Football Association (SAFA) held the FIFA™ (Financial Assistance Programme) FAP Talent Identification programme over the past weekend (29 - 31 October 2011). It was held in Edenvale, Johannesburg.This the second one, with the first being held four years ago.But the current programme is different in that it’s first of its kind where the selectors was able to go around the country to select players over a year to invite to the session.
The programme is funded by the World Football governing body (FIFA™) with the aim of assisting Confederations and Associations with the development of talent in their respective regions.The talent identification trials were successfully concluded with many of the 40 invited players being identified as potential candidates for the SAFA High Performance Centre as well as the Under 17 Women’s National team.
SAFA's Assistant Technical Director, Fran Hilton-Smith was positive with the outcome of the whole process.“The talent on display was of the highest quality, and a number of outstanding players were identified for further monitoring. But I can confirm that we have identified 12 players that are national team material, so we will be working with them going forward. Thanks to SAFA and FIFA™ we can now start preparing the next Under 17 Women’s National Team for 2014. A number of players were identified for inclusion in next year’s intake at the SAFA High Performance Centre as well as the present Under 17 Women’s National Team, and this has without doubt increased the pool of the players we have,” Hilton-Smith.
National Team Coaches Joseph Mkhonza (BanyanaBanyana); Sheryl Botes (U20 Women); Gregory Mashilo (U17 Women) and Anna Monate (U17 assistant) were on hand to do selections.
