Kaizer Chiefs duo Itumeleng Khune and Erick Mathoho will marshal the South African Under-23 defence in their Olympic Games opener against Brazil on Thursday night.
SA Under-23 coach Owen da Gama decided to include both his over-aged players Khune and Mathoho when he named his team on Thursday morning for the clash at the Mané Garrincha Stadium (9pm kickoff SA time).
Khune will play ahead of Jody February – who was the goalkeeper for the qualifying competition late last year – and the Bafana captain will be expected to concentrate his efforts on Brazil’s Barcelona star striker Neymar, who will captain Brazil.
Da Gama pulled off a few surprise selections in his starting XI, with Deolin Mekoa being preferred at left back ahead of Tebogo Moerane and Tercious Malepe, while there was no place for Brazil-based striker Tyroane Sandows.
Mathoho’s regular Bafana defensive partner Rivaldo Coetzee will line-up at centre back as well, with new Orlando Pirates signing Abbubaker Mobara operating at right back instead of as a defensive midfield anchorman, which sees Kwanda Mngonyama miss out.
Captain Keagan Dolly will hope to mesmerise the Brazilians with his speed and trickery down the left wing, but he will probably interchange positions throughout with Cape Town City’s Aubrey Modiba, who is listed at right wing but is actually a left back.
Dolly has been highly effective when playing in a “free role” where he moves across the midfield at will, making him difficult to mark as the South African playmaker.
Gift Motupa, who is a regular goal-scorer from midfield, will look to provide some punch in the centre along with Mothobi Mvala, while Da Gama has installed French-based Lebogang Mothiba alongside Menzi Masuku upfront.
There are considerable attacking options on the substitutes’ bench in the shape of Phumlani Ntshangase, Sandows and Ajax Cape Town’s Tashreeq Morris.
The SA Under-23 team’s last appearance at the Olympics was at the 2000 Sydney Games, where despite memorably beating Brazil 3-1, Shakes Mashaba’s team failed to progress beyond the group stages.
Da Gama is hoping for a different outcome this time around, but a tough task awaits against the host nation in Brasilia on Thursday night.
“Football is a team sport and coaches work very hard to produce a final product such as this one – but it is now up to the players to re-write the history of South African football at this level, it is also up to the players to write this exciting chapter in the books of their individual lives,” Da Gama said on the SA Football Association website.
“However, they will only accomplish that if the play as a unit, as one team.”
SA Under-23 Starting XI
Itumeleng Khune (GK); Abbubaker Mobara, Eric Mathoho, Rivaldo Coetzee, Deolin Mekoa; Mothobi Mvala, Gift Motupa, Keagan Dolly (captain), Aubrey Modiba; Menzi Masuku, Lebogang Mothiba.
Substitutes: Jody February (GK), Tebogo Moerane, Kwanda Mngonyama, Tercious Malepe, Phumlani Ntshangase, Tyroane Sandows, Tashreeq Morris.
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