South Africa U-23 boss David Notoane: Zamalek loss is important to me and my team
David Notoane was the man in charge that saw South Africa U-23 side demolished by Zamalek in a friendly game on Wednesday afternoon.
Notoane who became the head coach of the Young Bafana Bafana February this year has expressed his delight for his side’s friendly against 2018-2019 CAF Confederation Cup winners.
The game was a preparation one for South Africa as they enter into the 2019 U-23 AFCON in Egypt.
Though the exercise did not go the way Notoane liked in terms of results but the former Mamelodi Sundowns trainee believed the game has given him and his technical bench what they need to fix before they go into the demanding Africa U-23 Nation Cup.
It appeared that South Africa were more organized in their play and adopted to Notoane’s instructions during the game, but two second half strikes from Zamalek changed the story for the Young Bafana Bafana.
On the official site of South Africa Football Association, Notoane talked about the positives the friendly gave his side and things they have to handle before South Africa take on Zambia in their first AFCON game at El Salam Stadium on Saturday.
“I am very happy with how the boys carried themselves playing against a side such as Zamalek”, said Notoane.
“This practice match gave us a whole lot of positives and some of the things we need to give special attention to before our first group match against Zambia” he added.
“I am glad we went through that exercise, it helped us a lot”.
Despite Notoane’s happiness for the friendly game, he might have showed some level kind of worries prior to facing Zamalek on last Wednesday as he was having only 12 players in camp, and that even forced the game to be played in only 67’ minutes.
There is a major boost in squad in-depth for Notoane following the arrival of skipper Tercious Malepe, Mondli Mpoto and forward Keletso Makgalwa, to take the total number of players in camp to 15.
Notaone’s squad size number is expected to increase before the Yong Bafana Bafana play their first game in the competition.
