Soccer
SA proud of national teams – Ntseki─── 16:47 Tue, 30 Sep 2014
Bloemfontein - The coach of the South African under 17 national football team, Molefi Ntseki, has praised the recent successes of the national football teams, adding that the entire country is proud of them.
The former Bloemfontein Celtic Colts coach said this after successfully guiding Amajimbos to the 2015 CAF African Youth Championship to be held in Niger next year following an impressive 4-3 aggregate victory over Egypt.
Amajimbos defeated the Egyptians 2-1 in the first leg in Rustenburg earlier this month before playing to a 2-all draw in the second leg match at the Contractors Stadium in Cairo on Saturday to book their place in the Championship.
Amajimbos now enjoy the successes endured by the Women’s team and the under 20 Men’s team, who will be participating in the African Women Championship and African Junior Championship respectively.
The proud mentor praised the teams, adding that as the faces of football in the country, the teams have represented the nation well.
“This achievement will go a long way in terms of our football development, because if you look at it, in the past, all the levels of our football (teams) did not qualify for any continental level,” Ntseki told OFM Sport.
“Now is the time for SAFA and all the national teams to do well, and show the entire world that South Africans can also improve in their football. This is not an achievement for an individual, but the whole country; the teams and the coaches of the junior teams.”
The former u.20 and u.23 assistant coach also explained that his team is looking forward to the Niger challenge, adding that long-term programme is in place.
“When we started, we came up with a long-term programme set to end in November next year. The only thing we need to do is put a bit of flash to the programme, because we have a programme to prepare for Niger and already the one for Chile,” he explained.
“We just need to make a presentation on how we would like to keep the team fit to be able to compete in Niger,” he concluded.
The CAF Under-17 finals will be played from February 15 to August 01 next year in Niger, with the semi-finalists qualifying to represent the continent at the 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Chile.
Lee Khotlele / OFM News
