KUALA LUMPUR – South Africa join the growing list of teams that have come to season young players at the 29th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, which will begin tomorrow in Ipoh, Perak.
Arriving early this morning, the South African team will make their third appearance in the tournament and will take the opportunity to test their young players.
Head coach Garreth Ewing said they have brought many players that they hope to field at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
South Africa join South Korea, Pakistan, Egypt, and Malaysia in fielding a young squad, with many of the youngsters making their debuts with their respective national teams.
Only Japan seem to have an experienced senior team and have sounded an early warning to their opponents as they hope to spring a surprise title win.
However, Japan head coach Katsuya Taskase decided to change his tune during the team managers and coaches’ press conference, saying he wants to expose his team’s young players during the tournament.
Ewing said a majority of the South African senior players will not be competing in Ipoh as they are currently playing with club teams in Europe, besides featuring in the Nations Cup at the end of the month in South Africa and the World Cup in India in January next year.
“We have even included three players from our U-23 team who have played in Johor for the Sultan of Johor Cup and performed well.
“The three are defender Fawaaz Khader, midfielder Senzwesihle Ngubane, and forward Cameron Le Forestier.
“We have seven senior team players, eight debutants, and one player who will make his second national team appearance. Even our senior players don’t have many international caps with Mohamed Mea having the most at 30 caps,” said Ewing, who has coached the South African national team since 2019.
South Africa will open their campaign against Pakistan, but Ewing said although his men may have a slow start due to the long hours spent travelling, the meeting with the South Asian team would not be an issue as both countries drew 2-2 in their Commonwealth Games opening match in July.
Despite having just arrived this morning, Ewing said his players had a good morning workout and had no issues with acclimatising themselves to the weather as the climate in South Africa is similar to Malaysia.
South Africa are currently ranked 14th together with South Korea, while Japan are 17th, Pakistan are 18th, and Egypt are 20th.
Malaysia are the highest ranked team in 10th.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s coach Zaman Tahir said despite his team having several experienced players, there will be eight newcomers.
“In any case we are the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, and we are certainly here for the experience,” said Zaman.
Meanwhile, Malaysian team manager Datuk Mirnawan Nawawi and head coach A. Arul Selvaraj said the team’s performance on match day is what matters and not rankings.
“All teams here, whether they have young players or (are low-ranked), want to win their matches, and there are not going to be any easy matches,” echoed both Mirnawan and Arul.
“Every match is going to be a battle and as much as South Korea want to win their opening match, we want to do the same right off the bat.
“Past results all come to nought, as all that matters on match day is the current form and performance,” said Mirnawan.
The Speedy Tigers will take on South Korea on tomorrow, Pakistan on Wednesday, South Africa on Friday, Egypt on Saturday, and Japan on Monday. – The Vibes, October 31, 2022
