South Africa U23 face ‘closed book’ Madagascar in Olympic qualifying

South Africa U23 coach Raymond Mdaka says his side have found little tactical information on Madagascar ahead of their back-to-back 2028 Olympic Games qualifiers.

The teams meet at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday at 3pm, before facing each other again on Tuesday, with South Africa aiming to reach the next round despite having limited knowledge of their opponents.

Mdaka said even analysts from the senior Bafana Bafana team had been unable to provide significant insight into Madagascar, who were not involved when South Africa played in the Cosafa competition in Mozambique in 2024.

“Honestly, Madagascar is a closed book. We’ve tried with whoever including our senior team analyst. Because they were not there in 2024 when we were playing Cosafa in Mozambique, this is the age group,” Mdaka told the media.

The coach said the technical team had searched widely for information but had still been unable to build a clear picture of Madagascar’s approach.

“We checked almost everywhere where we thought we could find something, it remains a closed book. But other than that, we always have a way as a technical team and coaches to at least find something, which is a little bit difficult, but we will always have a way out,” he added.

South Africa would face either Rwanda or Cameroon in the third round if they overcome Madagascar across the two fixtures. Mdaka, however, said his squad were concentrating solely on the immediate challenge rather than looking ahead.

“As much as we are playing against a closed book, any team that comes and brings 11 players on the field … never undermines them,” he said.

“So, we are doing as we normally do, take each game as it comes. Once we are done with this, we will put all our efforts into what is coming next. We are not thinking much about who is coming next, we are thinking more of jumping this hurdle then we will be fine.”

Mdaka has already led Amajita to Africa Cup of Nations and Cosafa Cup titles. His current objective is to guide the U23 team towards qualification for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

He said the ambition belonged to the entire group, rather than being a personal target.

“It might not be for me only but let it be for the whole team, the technical team and doing such a great job for the country and also with this group we hope to do as much as we can to make sure that we possibly qualify for the Olympics.

“That’s what we are looking at, that’s what the boys know. We always share with them to say, this is a once in a life opportunity, you might not get it again.”