The clock is slowly but surely winding down, and it is exactly 20 days before the much-anticipated U20 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Chile later this month.
Amajita coach Raymond Mdaka is yet to announce his final 21-man squad but is expected to name a strong team in the coming days that will compete at the highest level against the best talent in the world.
“Having the group back in camp has been good. The only difficult and complex part is that we have 29 players, since Siyabonga Mabena is still out with a minor injury, but out of this number, we need to come up with the final 21-man squad,” Mdaka said.
“For more than two days, I could not sleep because my final list kept changing several times because of the number of quality players that we needed to select from.
“If it were up to me, I would take all these players to the World Cup, but it is not possible. But we will eventually make the final selection.
“We’ll not be starting afresh; we will just look at some of the positions that we can improve and have that balance in the team.”
The SA U20 national team heads into the World Cup as African champions, after lifting the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in May this year.
Mdaka said it will be key for his players not to get carried away going onto a global stage carrying the African champions’ tag.
“We try our best to make sure that our boys understand where we are as a team, because what they did [at the Afcon] is a massive achievement.
“Because for any other team to represent the country and the continent as champions is something that we always remind them about as to how far they have come.
“But at the same time, we try to teach and show them how to carry themselves as champions and not get carried away.” Mdaka added.
