South Africa Under-23 coach David Notoane has named the final 23-man squad to face Congo in two crucial back-to-back CAF U23 Olympic Qualifiers this month.
South Africa are scheduled to face the Congolese side in the first match at Dobsonville Stadium on Thursday, March 23 before travelling to Brazzaville to play the second leg at Massamba-Debat Stadium on March 26/27.
Notoane admits that he is very excited by the quality of the players he has selected to represent the country at the qualifiers.
“It’s a very, very exciting squad, and a very competitive squad,” he said on Thursday (16 March 2023) after announcing his team. “This squad is a culmination of the work done from January to March in monitoring a lot of these players at their respective clubs in terms of the performances they’ve been dishing out week in and week out.
“There are those that were getting minutes in between and it has been very exciting to watch them. So congratulations to all the players that have made the final squad. We look forward to the game against Congo. We believe we’ve selected a squad that will meet the demands Congo puts before us in terms of their approach to the game, and their physicality.”
“I think this group is competitive and talented enough to help us get through this qualification round and qualify for the Under-23 Afcon. To those players who didn’t make it, they also did very, very well and we will continue to monitor them going to June. A lot of them will have an opportunity to stake their claim in the team and of course, different sets of opposition require different sets of players, as is the norm with the national team.
“So yes, we look forward to this round, we look forward to a good first leg where we hope to take a comfortable lead and victory to Congo, where we know we are going to face very, very difficult conditions against a very, very physical and strong team. But we will be up to the challenge, looking at the composition of the squad. We hope that the strategy we put in place will be the one that will help South Africa get the desired victory to go to Afcon 2023 in Morocco.”
South Africa’s Under-23 squad:
Goalkeepers: Lincoln Vyer, Ephrahim Mothibedi, Olwethu Mzimela.
Defenders: Athenkosi Mcaba, Bradley Cross, Wayne Dortley, Siyana Msani, Keagan Johannes, Olwethu Makhanya, Kamogelo Mahlangu.
Midfielders: Jayden Adams, Samkelo Zwane, Christos Retsos, Ethan Brooks, Devin Titus, Kgaugelo Chauke.
Forwards: Ashley Cupido, Boitumelo Radiopane, Antonio van Wyk, Oswin Appolis, Mduduzi Shabalala, Thapelo Maseko, Yanela Mbuthuma.
Photo by Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
