Owen Da Gama fingered for U-23s’ exit

South Africa Under-23 head coach Owen Da Gama is set to be hauled over the coals, with even his future potentially discussed, when he meets SA Football Association CEO Dennis Mumble this week.

Da Gama and assistant Thabo Senong — who are both also assistants to Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba — will meet Mumble to answer questions on the U-23s’ first - hurdle qualifying exit from the All Africa Games (AAG) last week with a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Sudan. A date has not been set for the meeting.

“I’m not happy we exited this early , ” Mumble said on Friday. “The AAG was not our priority but it was preparation for the Olympic qualifiers.

“We ’ve discussed some things and I have a follow-up meeting with the coaches this week. I don’t want us to repeat that performance in the Olympic qualifiers. So we will have to do something drastic to improve the level of performance.

“They must tell us what is needed because we can’t afford the same mistakes.”

With qualifiers from May for the Caf U-23 Championship, which act as qualifiers for the 2016 Rio Olympics, the question has been raised whether Da Gama is the right man for an important job.

“Shakes Mashaba, who is Owen’s boss, will also have to advise us going forward what our response should be to this,” Mumble said.

The team selections against Sudan have been questioned.

Times Media has learnt that SA Under-20 (U-20) head coach Senong allegedly recommended U-20 players who had qualifying and tournament experience for the first leg, which SA lost 2-0, who were not chosen.

Senong allegedly did not want to travel to Sudan, with Under-17 (U-17) assistant and Mamelodi Sundowns head of youth Shawn Bishop initially to replace him, but being withdrawn by Downs. Mumble denied these allegations.

“That’s definitely not true,” he said. “I asked Shawn Bishop to assist Owen in his team selection camp because Senong was not available then — he was still busy with the Caf Youth Championship.

“Beyond that, those guys [Da Gama and Senong] work very well together.”

The U-23 exit was a notable blip at a time where the SA U-17s reached their Caf Championship final to qualify for the Fifa U-17 World Cup, and the U-20s qualified for the African Championship.

“One would think the SA U-20 team would form the core of the U-23s, and did we really do that ? ” Mumble asked.

Da Gama said he sent out 52 call-up letters, but got a quarter of the players he wanted. Sudan also had a 10-day break in their league especially for the match, and had played two games against Ethiopia in a preliminary round.

The SA U-23s played a warmup against Palestine, though with team disruptions many of those players were missing against Sudan. The feeling is that Da Gama still had a strong enough team to beat the north Africans. The coach has been criticised for not picking more players from the National First Division, which has a five-player U-23 quota, rather than fringe PSL players who had little game time.

“Look, I don’t understand how you say we had a strong team,” Da Gama responded.

“I have spoken to former SA U-23 coaches from Mich D’Avray to Shakes and they said clubs not releasing players was their biggest stumbling block.”

Da Gama denied not picking players recommended by Senong.

“Thabo recommended players — I’ve got that list. I definitely deny that. That is hogwash — why would I not bring in these players, unless we thought there were other players already in the camp who were fresher?

“And the way we pick the squad is Shakes, Thabo and myself sit down together and do it as a team.”

Da Gama believes his side will qualify for the Caf U-23 champs. Due to Senegal replacing Congo as hosts, SA have just one tie to progress past, against Zimbabwe in June, when PSL players should be available.

The coach has not been a stranger to controversy. He was suspended as Platinum Stars coach in 2012, but then cleared in an investigation into pay-to-play allegations.