SA have one eye on the Rio Olympic Games as they take on Japan in friendly

28 June 2016 - 17:49 By Nick Said

South Africa’s Under-23 side take another step forward in their preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August when they face Japan on Wednesday. It is a potential early sighter for both teams ahead of what could be a quarterfinal meeting at the tournament in Brazil if both make it out of their respective pools.It is a useful exercise for the Japanese‚ who must contend with Nigeria in their first round pool.Although South Africa also have an Asian opponent in Iraq‚ their style is much different to Japan.“We haven’t had too many match-ups against African teams so this will be an excellent opportunity to test ourselves‚” Japan coach Makoto Teguramori said.“It’ll be a training match‚ not a send-off. We’d like to have a game that will make people anxiously await the matches at the Rio Games.” Japan have a locally-based squad for the match‚ having not called up their two European-based Under-23 stars‚ Yuya Kubo (Young Boys‚ Switzerland) and Takumi Minamino (Red Bull Salzburg‚ Austria).South Africa’s preparation for Rio has been adequate - they lifted the COSAFA Castle Cup on Saturday having seen-off the senior national sides of Lesotho‚ Swaziland and Botswana - but this will likely be a step up again in terms of ability.They scored an impressive nine goals against those teams but conceded four times and defensively looked all at sea at times.It will be the major area of concern ahead of their tournament in Brazil. "The game against Japan is crucial in that it will help check how far we have come and what more needs to be done‚” Da Gama said.“A win will most certainly keep the positive momentum in the team going on.“We are now just over a month away from the Olympic Games‚ and need a few more matches to brush up on our game.”Impressive midfielder Lebogang Phiri has not travelled with the squad as he returned to Denmark to his club Brondby to start their UEFA Europa League campaign away to Icelandic side Valur on Thursday.South Africa and Japan do have a history at Under-23 level‚ including at the Olympic Games.They met in 2000 as South Africa lost 2-1 to the Japanese in their opening game with Siyabonga Nomvethe on the scoresheet.They went on to beat Brazil 3-1 in their second game‚ but another defeat to Slovakia meant they did not qualify for the second round.They also met at the famed Festival Espoirs de Toulon in France two years later‚ when Japan were this time 3-0 winners.Shakes Mashaba was coach of the South African side in both those two games.But the last two meetings‚ again in Toulon (2005) and in Qatar (2007) resulted in 1-0 wins for South Africa.Those sides were coached by Pitso Mosimane and Steve Komphela respectively. - TMG Digital..

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