Bafana coach Broos sends warning about SA junior teams’ lack of support

Hugo Broos has cautioned the South African Football Association (Safa) it needs to ensure the crop of players in the junior national teams don’t get lost in the system.

The Bafana Bafana coach called for frequent arrangements of camps and friendlies.

Safa has always struggled with the dynamics of progressing talented youth team players into the Bafana set-up. This can lead to some promising youngsters falling off the national radar or, worse, completely disappearing from the football scene.

“You have to organise camps for them or else they’ll be gone. It’s not enough to go to the [junior] Afcon [Africa Cup of Nations] and World Cup and stop there,” Broos warned.

“You have talented players, so work with it. Let them play during Fifa breaks because they have to stay at top level, otherwise the standard will drop and the players will disappear.”

Amajita, the reigning African champions after winning the Under-20 Afcon in Egypt in May, were knocked out by Colombia in the last 16 of U-20 World Cup in Chile this month. The team the South Africans beat in the Afcon final, Morocco, won the World Cup.

Coach Raymond Mdaka’s team did not have an ideal preparation period, lacking warm-up matches to tune for the World Cup.

Amajimbos, who by Tuesday hadn’t announced their final squad, face Bolivia in their U-17 World Cup Group A opener in Qatar on Monday. Coach Vela Khumalo’s U-17s have played one friendly, beating Malawi 3-0 away on Sunday, as preparation for the tournament.

Broos revealed he plans to start integrating junior national team players into the Bafana system as he fears they may end up dropping off the scene.

“The U-17s are going to the World Cup and U-20s were in the World Cup, so I think we are at a crossroads. If we are not going to work with the guys in the coming months, in two years you won’t hear anything about them.

“It’s the moment. We have to make a plan so in two years the U-20 players are there and we have a foundation of U-19 players for later.

“If we can make that happen, I think this country can achieve a lot, especially because the facilities are there.”

Sowetan