Lesotho’s Likuenda coach Seephephe Matete will bank on his Under-20 graduates when competing at the COSAFA Cup 2015 which gets underway in South Africa’s North West Province on Sunday.
Interestingly, Lesotho and Madagascar have never met in the Cosafa Cup history.
Matete spoke highly about his young brigade during a press conference held at Sun City on Saturday afternoon ahead of the 2000 finalists’ meeting with Madagascar on Monday.
“This is a good tournament and our focus is on the youth. Most of our players in the senior team are from the squad that competed at the 2013 Under-20 championship,”Matete said.
“There are actually six players promoted from the Under-20 side. This is the tournament that should help us to expose the talented players.”
Going for the opening match, the Lesotho mentor noted that in every competition, it is always important to get off to a good start.
“First games are always very important. You have to try and win or at least get a draw to help you build momentum going into the second game,” Matete added.
Lesotho hope to build on their fourth-place finish at the 2013 edition when they sneaked past the group stages only to be stopped by Zimbabwe in the seminal of the regional showpiece that pools 14 national teams.
The Cosafa Cup 2015 gets underway on Sunday with two matches from Group A that will make for an intriguing start to the regional championship.
Powerhouse Zimbabwe take on Mauritius and the Moruleng Stadium at 17h30, but before that the tournament opener sees Namibia clash with Seychelles at the same venue at 15h00.
Namibia have had to deal with the late loss of veteran striker Henrico Botes, who was not released by his South African club.
He has been replaced by Tura Magic striker Itamunua Keimuine, while Gaborone United Benson Shilongo will be another late arrival as he joins up with the squad after his club side play their final Botswana Premier League match of the season on Saturday afternoon.
Namibia coach Ricardo Mannetti was in upbeat mood on the eve of his team’s 2015 Cosafa Cup opener, declaring that his troops were ready to build on their 2013 performance in Ndola, Zambia.
Mannetti has brought with him a squad that blends youth and experience and said his main objective this year would be to go beyond the quarter-final stage.
In 2013 the Brave Warriors beta Mauritius and Seychelles in their group games and they also face the same opponents in Group A this year with Zimbabwe being the addition to their pool of opponents.
“Our objective first of all is to improve on our performance in 2013. I have a lot of respect for all our opponents but we want to do better. In 2013 I had a young team but I think they are in better shape this time around and I have included some layers who play in the South African leagues,’’ Mannetti said.
One of the key players the Brave Warriors will be banking on is Maritzburg United goalkeeper Virgil Vries who has been enjoying fine form at his club in the South African Premiership.
“Vries has impressed the entire nation and myself. I expect him to continue with his form in the national team. Since I have a good mixture of youth and experience I want leaders on the pitch and I will need his experience and advice to the other players on the pitch,” Mannetti said.
Their opponents in that opening game Seychelles say they are in the tournament to learn and also prepare for the Indian Ocean Island Games in August but are ready to cause an upset.
Seychelles coach Ulric Mathiot who is also his country’s technical director said he has a number of young players who are enthusiastic and raring to go.
“I would like to once again thank Cosafa for the tournament. It gives us opportunities to play more games as you know we do not get to play a lot of football. We are a small population of 90 000 people.
“We are using this tournament to prepare for the Indian Ocean Games and we are also going to use the games so that we develop our players.
“Cosafa helps us to expose our players to get a chance to play outside Seychelles and we would want to see our players also breaking into other leagues liken the South African league.
“We are formulating a team for the future and we have some exciting players who played in the Champions League against Mamelodi Sundowns players like Karl Hall and Yannick Manoo,” says Mathiot. – cosafa.com
