Raymond Mdaka targets squad cohesion in South Africa U23 double-header against Algeria

South Africa U23 coach Raymond Mdaka says his side’s back-to-back friendlies against Algeria will help build a team capable of competing in the Olympic Games qualifiers.

Algeria will visit the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein for matches on Thursday and Sunday, with both games scheduled to kick off at 18:00.

The fixtures are part of South Africa’s preparations for the Olympic qualifiers, which will be played in November and December. Mdaka believes the team must use the opportunity to improve before the competitive matches begin.

“We strongly believe that tomorrow we will be better than today. We really feel it’s a great opportunity for us to have a friendly match before we go to the official qualifying games,” he said.

Mdaka also wants the two matches to help assess the progress of players who featured in previous age-group tournaments, while giving others the chance to challenge for places in the squad.

“Normally when we talk about proper progression, we would be saying the group that played in the previous World Cup and Afcon from the U20 would be 80% or 90% of the players that will be part of this team,” he said.

He said the current camp provided an opportunity to reward players who had previously contributed to positive results, while also examining whether newcomers could reduce the gap between themselves and the established members of the squad.

“It is a good opportunity for us to do justice to some who were there before and gave us good results, and also open a bit of an eye to look at those who were not there and feel they can close the gap,” Mdaka said.

“We are always doing something. What we do today cannot be compared to what we can do next week.”

The squad includes Luke Baartman, Faiz Abrahams, Camren Dansin, Simphiwe Selepe, Mpho Padime, Neo Rapoo, Gomolemo Kekana, Mfundo Vilakazi, Kutlwano Letlhaku and Quwani Plaatjies, among others.

The strength of the group has left Mdaka with difficult decisions to make when selecting his starting XI. He said maintaining the right balance would be a key consideration during the friendlies.

“People will always say it’s a very good headache, but it’s one of the difficult challenges that we are facing [in terms of the team’s composition and balance],” he said.

“So, it is a very good and bad, difficult challenge, but it is always something that we will try to work on and make sure we get the best combination that can give us good results.”