Mdaka misses his overseas-based players

Amajita coach Raymond Mdaka has conceded that not having the majority of overseas-based players in their second camp to prepare for next month's Cosafa Cup was a bit of a snag as they aim to pull out all the stops to achieve their goals of going to the Under-20 Afcon and the World Cup.

Yesterday Amajita, who have been in camp since Monday, travelled to Lesotho to face that nation in a two-legged friendly, preparing for next month's Cosafa Cup. Both these friendlies are billed for Maseru's Bambatha Tšita Sports Arena today and Sunday.

They both kickoff at 3pm.

Benfica goalkeeper Fletcher Lowe is the only overseas-based player now in the Under-20 squad for these two games and Mdaka admits this was a hitch as even their first training camp in March consisted of local-based troops. Even so, the U-20 coach understands that it is tricky for teams to release players outside the Fifa calendar.

“Honestly, it [not having the overseas contingent] is quite a challenge because we would have loved to see them and incorporate them with the locally based players but we understand the situation,'' Mdaka said after training at Fun Valley in Olifantsvlei yesterday.

“You know that if you do your preps outside the Fifa calendar, obviously you have to respect the clubs who don't release players. It's preseason now... I can just give an example of Shandre [Campbell, who recently joined Club Brugge of Belgium from SuperSport United], he's just gone overseas now, we spoke to them [Brugge] and they agreed that let's allow him to integrate with the team and when it's Cosafa they will release him.''

Cosafa has not confirmed the host country of next month's U-20 tournament, where the two finalists will automatically qualify for next year's U-20 Afcon. “Our main objective is to win the Cosafa Cup, go to Afcon and qualify for the World Cup, so this camp is very important in readying the team to achieve these objectives,'' Mdaka noted.

Kaizer Chiefs' Mfundo Vilakazi, Siyabonga Mabena of Mamelodi Sundowns and Neo Rapoo from SuperSport are some of the players with Premiership experience in the squad. 

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