South Africa U23 head coach Raymond Mdaka has slammed individualism by some of his players following the side’s second round first leg 2028 Olympic qualifier against Madagascar at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday.
Mdaka’s charges got a bye in the first round of the qualifiers and narrowly defeated Madagascar 1-0 in the first game if the second round tie. However there were certain aspects the coach wasn’t pleased with like players wanting to do things by themselves instead of also relying on their teammates.
KV Kortrijk attacker Shandre Campbell was guilty of such in some parts of the game with Mdaka saying he will keep talking to him and the group about the matter as he did when Mfundo Vilakazi used to do the same in the past.
“Very spot on because I don’t know, I can’t say that’s the nature or that’s how it’s supposed to be because most of the players who are talented, they would want to make things that are not there in a situation where it could be simple,” said the coach.
“Remember the ball that Shandre got there everybody was showing up in the box. Something that we should have put in, then we score, then it ends up there. But we work on that. We do a lot of team buildings. We do a lot of presentation for them to understand the importance of playing as a team and getting a goal.
“You see, a goal is more important than many other of the things that might be happening in the field. We all play to get goals, so we do a lot on them. With Shandre, I remember since we were playing COSAFA, when we were playing AFCON, he was not there.
“But these are the kind of things that we always fight him to improve around because it’s a mental aspect. So the likes of Mfundo, look at Mfundo now; he has reduced a lot in terms of doing those kind of things.
“[Mpho] Padime , yes, we are with him but what I like about him, he does it positively. Whatever he does as an action will take or give us the next move. So you wouldn’t stop them from doing that.
“But those that doesn’t become objective are the one that we encourage them for them to grow because it will mean for them to grow mentally in terms of their careers as footballers.”