There will be no sense of fear when South Africa’s National Under-23 Olympics Men’s team walk on to the Al Salam Stadium’s pitch to take on Zambia in their opening Group B match of this year’s U-23 AFCON tournament this Saturday.
This is the very same mental approach South Africa’s National Under-23 captain, Tercious Malepe, revealed they had applied when they knocked both Angola and Zimbabwe in the AFCON qualifying rounds enroute to this all-important quadrennial continental showdown.
South Africa handed Angola a 6-1 hiding in the second round, before knocking out neighbours Zimbabwe with a 5-0 scoreline on aggregate in the final round of qualifiers.
Malepe, who joined the team on Wednesday morning alongside Keletso Makgalwa and Mondli Mpoto due to their respective club commitments, stated that he and his teammates were looking forward to this match.
This match will kick-off at 20h00.
“This is not going to be an easy match, however, we will work our socks off to fight for the desired result,” Malepe said. “Our overall goal is to make sure that we qualify for next year’s Tokyo Summer Olympic Games and we will do everything in our powers to achieve that.
“This is a very taxing tournament where you only get to have two resting days after each match played and so you really have to be both physically and mentally strong in order to get what you want.
“Our primary objective is to secure a top three finish in this tournament and I believe we have what it takes to achieve just that.
Meanwhile, Malepe thanked his club Chippa United for releasing him to honor this national call-up, adding that he will do everything in his might to represent his nation with pride and excellence.
Source: Safa.net
