Khumalo Bemoans Lack Of Preparation For U17 AFCON

South Africa Under-17 head coach Vela Khumalo has expressed disappointment over lack of proper preparation leading up to the U17 AFCON currently underway in Morocco.

Amajimbos opened their Group D campaign with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Senegal last week Thursday but lost 2-0 to Algeria on Sunday.

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Before the game against Algeria, the Kaizer Chiefs youth coach felt let down by the lack of preparations heading to the tournament, as they arrived late in Morocco, with other players left behind due to the delay in acquiring visas.

“If you did not prepare and all of a sudden you play a game, I'll say it is abruptly (because) you play a game against a Western African team, a strong one, without really having a proper preparation, you will not see a good performance,” Khumalo said, speaking to Football Stage.

“I think the result went our way against Senegal, but when one looks at the performance, we could have been better. It was not really looking good, but the conditioning coach, the doctors and the staff, everyone contributed to make the team look a little bit fresher, but we were not really ourselves in that game.

“Suddenly, you have changed the line-up, people don’t know that two players came a day before we played because of the visas, so we did not have all the players coming here, so I had to adapt. Other players came a day after,” Khumalo revealed.

Teams that go through to the quarter-finals automatically qualify for the U17 FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year, as Khumalo continued to lament how badly prepared Amajimbos are.

“So all these dynamics affect the performance, which people don't know about; it is not like everyone came in here at the right time, much as the time was not even enough for us, everyone was here, we're the only country that came late,” Khumalo went on.

“Us coming late, expectations are there, much as they know the preparation was not there, they will start scrutinising the team, ‘We did not do this, blah, blah, blah' but honestly speaking, how do you play good football when the preparation is not there? Can we get it in the air? No, we can't.

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“For good results, you must get (good) preparations. I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just saying maybe these are the lessons to teach our people to say, we cannot be emotional. Now everyone thinks South Africa could have done this, I get all of that, but are we saying it must just be out of nowhere?” the Amakhosi youth coach questioned.

Amajimbos will complete their group schedule with a clash against Ghana on Wednesday evening.