On tour with the AmaJimbos: why South African football has a brighter future than you think

On song: Tanzania and South Africa line up for the
anthems on Friday at Azam FC near Dar Es Salaam

IT goes against the flow to say South Africa have bright footballing future. Ranked 66 in the world and 14 in Africa, nowhere near the World Cup in Brazil, poor on home soil at AFCON and CHAN.

Bloody hell, we haven’t even got a head coach at the moment with Gordon Igesund serving out the final days of what was, barring a 1-0 win over now-not-so-mighty Spain, a dreadfully disappointing two years.

But I bring good news. We DO have a future. I’ve just returned from Tanzania, where our Under 17 national squad, the AmaJimbos, produced a creditable 0-0 draw against the young Serengeti Warriors at Azam FC, just outside Dar Es Salaam.

It doesn’t sound much, but believe me, these young South Africans will win the home leg and go on to play Congo or Egypt for a place in the African Youth Championship hosted by Niger next year.

It wasn’t the result which got to me at Azam’s neat little set up on Friday afternoon. It was the attitude, the drive, the ambition of our youngsters – and their SAFA back-up team.

Tanzania did all they could to unsettle a South African team featuring many youngsters – like Vuyo Mantjie from Harmony Academy in the Free State – who had never even been on a flight out of the country before.

Making their point: the AmaJimbos in action on Friday

They put is in the Sapphire Hotel, the kind of African palace you’d struggle to give one star. Stuck in the middle of the city with the local Mosque right opposite, the noise was unrelenting, particularly during Ramadan with the pre-dawn call to eat.

Ah, eating. Blimey, the food was dreadful despite assistant coach Shawn Bishop’s attempt to regulate the menu. The sight of 17 lads looking aghast at the prison food every mealtime was pitiful, they piled their plates high with bread and picked their way through stew after stew.

Basic hotel rooms with a single lift which forced even the old guys like me to run up and down the stairs didn’t help. The television channels offered one grainy view of SuperSport which came and went, the rest was… well, local.

Yep, the kind of place your missus would punch you in the head for if you ended up there on holiday. When head coach Molefi Ntseki raised some of these issues – including the unbelievable hour-plus drive to the stadium for training – the local football federation and CAF observers simply shrugged.

Walking out of the hotel was not recommended – I did a bit of exploring, it’s a fascinating, sweltering city. But when goalkeeping coach Stavros Tsichlas took us out on the final night after the game, the truth was revealed. Dar Es Salaam is no African hell hole. Barely a mile away, towards the coast, the city turns in to a beautiful seaside resort with swimming pools, plush hotels… and decent television with broadband connections!

On the road: AmaJimbos on the bus

But did our youngsters flinch? Did their heads go down? Not a bit of it. From huge SuperSport United goalkeeper Mondli Mphoto to captain Nelson Maluleka, they drew together, singing on every bus trip, dancing their way through the warm-ups after the daily blue-light drive through the chaos of Dar’s gridlocked Chinese-inspired busses.

The game itself – watched by a crowd of nearly 5000 on a sweltering Friday afternoon – was all South Africa’s. Wits front-runner Luvuyo Mkatshana had a third-minute goal ruled out – wrongly – for offside (I haven’t seen the replays, but assistant coach Bishop has got the local television coverage) and Khanyiso Mayo, the striker from the Eastern Cape, saw chance after chance go begging on the rubber-based astroturf surface.

The now-traditional Bafana Bafana problem of goal-scoring came home to roost. Mpoto – with a range of distribution right up there with Itumeleng Khune – was barely tested as Sundowns’ Notha Ngcobo terrorised the Tanzania right back and Keanu Cupido – one of SIX starters from the SuperSport United academy – soaked up everything at the back.

Putting some PSL clubs to shame: the crowd at Azam FC

Afterwards, coach Ntseki consoled a side disappointed by a sweat-soaked but goalless effort: “Heads up, heads up… you’ve done your country proud. Don’t be down about this, we’ll win it at home.”

Afterwards, in the more salubrious surrounds of the Sea Cliff casino, Ntseki and Bishop talked about the problems of goal-scoring which plagues our game. Solutions – involving former Moroka Swallows striker Noel Cousins, now a striking coach at Sundowns – are being sought.

But the message to take from Tanzania is not a glum one. These 17 boys and their SAFA handlers sneered at adversity. They took on board a first taste of travelling north in Africa. And they didn’t break. They sang.

No I in team: the AjaJimbos

These lads are our future. There is abundant talent – the AmaJimbos suffered some withdrawals due to the Engen U17 tournament taking place back in South Africa on the same weekend – and few African nations can match the resources of a nation which takes its own water and sports drinks on such trips and fights so hard for their boys.

Look, Congo or Egypt will be tough. But wherever SAFA decide to play the second leg against Tanzania next week – from Dobsonville to coach Ntseki’s spiritual home in Botshabelo – that hurdle will be reached.

And these players will march on, with valuable lessons learned. Bafana Bafana has a future. It’s just a matter of believing in our youth.

Picking the AmaJimbos: Molefi Ntseki and Shawn Bishop

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

South Africa's Under 17s in Tanzania: AmaJimbos singing their way through the delights of Dar Es Salaam

No1: Mondli Mpoto of SuperSport United Academy

Dar Es Salaam’s city centre is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. Especially if you’re a 17-year-old playing for South Africa’s Under 17s, the AmaJimbos.

The 17-strong Bafana Bafana youth squad, in Tanzania to play the first leg of their African Youth Championship qualifier on the gleaming new astro-turf of mega-rich Azam Football Club, appear in good spirits at the Sapphire Hotel in the capital.

But that in itself is a minor miracle. Many of the players have NEVER flown in an airplane before. Vuyo Junior Mantjie, the midfielder from Harmony Academy in the Free State, confessed as we left Oliver Tambo International airport on Tuesday afternoon: “This is my first flight, can you help me with the safety belt please?”

Working hard: AmaJimbos training at Azam FC

Five hours later, after considerable debate involving US dollars and the local currency, we finally made it through passport control and the first experience of this bustling city involved grid-locked traffic and the loud hooting of Chinese-made mini-buses as the team-bus struggled to negotiate the packed streets of Dar es Salaam.

Our hotel is not perfect. Far from it. But it’s not far from the local mosque, where the Muezzin’s five-times-daily call to prayer wakes us up as dawn breaks at 4.53am every morning.

The food is not quite what you’d expect. Plenty of fish, lots of spices, no menu. You eat what you get. It’s hot and humid at all times. A major debate over hotel rooms and a lot of haggling over an agreed menu followed as players, officials and media attempted to access their mobile networks and the hotel’s painfully weak broadband.

The hotel proudly proclaims: “No drinking in the hotel. Unmarried couples cannot share rooms.” This is an Islamic country.

Outside, the streets are frantic. Like a South African kasi on speed. Everybody is carrying something. From wood and metal to truck wheels and food. Many wear English Premier League replica shirts, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are the most popular, though Manchester City are plainly growing as a team worth supporting in Africa.

Stuck in a tiny hotel with just one lift and mostly Arabic television (there is one, grainy SuperSport channel), the players were relieved to cross to the posh part of the city for a quick kickabout on Wednesday morning. It was brief, but relieved the frustrations of the team, led by coach Molefi Ntseki.

Gunner: Premier League shirts all over Dar es Salaam

Then came the trip to Azam FC. 3pm Wednesday afternoon. We spent 15 minutes at one traffic light as the Tanzanian traffic came to a standstill. Eventually two police vehicles turned up to escort our two mini-buses through the unbelievable roads along a 20km journey through endless markets, apparently run-down but thriving. Coffin shops next to coffee shops, mobile phone credit available in every second shack, the “dental tooth remover” next to the “hair cutting saloon”.

Every second road in Tanzania appears to have been forgotten by the god of tarmac. Some of the roads don’t have potholes,  they resemble natural ravines scarred by years of heavy rain and heavier trucks. But the traffic is nose to tail.

It took us nearly two hours to negotiate the route to the Azam Stadium, a purpose-built facility built by the local wheat-and-drink millionaire on land granted to him by the government.

And there it all changed. A footballing oasis. Brand new floodlights with the wrapping paper still on them. A state-of-the-art artificial surface, rubber rather than sand-based. No grass burns. No bobbling on the turf. The dressing rooms are like golf lockers, in dark wood with a visitor’s facility that looks like a boardroom. The tiny stadium boasts two large replay screens, a television tower and there’s a turf pitch being laid beyond the astro.

Out on the pitch, goalkeeper Mondli Mpoto from SuperSport United finds himself able to punt the ball deep in to the opposition half under goalkeeping coach Stavro Tsichlas’s guiding hand. Shaun Bishop, the assistant coach, has the outfield players singing and dancing through the warm-up.

As a training match ensues, Notha Ngcobo, the only representative from the Mamelodi Sundowns academy, scored from distance. Thendo Mukumela from Limpopo rattled the bar from fully 30 yards. Shots are flying in from everywhere. Tsichlas agrees: “It’s a good surface to shoot on.”

Today we will return to Azam, hopefully with a full blue-light brigade. The road is long but fascinating. These youngsters know they are in a foreign country, from dawn calls to prayer to sweating at night if the air conditioning fails and running up seven flights of stairs because the lift never comes.

But throughout, with the match now just over 24 hours away (they kick-off against Tanzania on tomorrow at 4pm local time, 3pm South African time) the players have been incredibly resilient. They sing in the bus, their training is joyous, fully of energy. They pray earnestly over their foreign meals.

And they’re ready for the locals, who must play the second leg in South Africa. If the AmaJimbos win this one, they’ve got the Democratic Republic of the Congo or mighty Egypt next.

Win that, and they qualify for the African Youth Championship in Niger next year. That’s the aim. Coach Ntseki insists: “We’re as ready as we can be. We won four friendlies against Botswana and Lesotho before this trip. Let’s do this thing.”

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

BAFANA'S FUTURE IS HERE: flying off to Tanzania with the unbeaten Under 17 AmaJimbos

Shaping our future: AmaJimbos coach Molefi Ntseki

OVER the next five days, I hope to find out if South African football has a future. I’m pretty sure it has. And it’s brighter than we think.

I leave for Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, tomorrow afternoon with Bafana Bafana’s Under 17 squad…. the AMAJIMBOS.

On Friday, at 3pm South African time, the lads face Tanzania in the away leg of their 2015 African Youth Championship qualifier at the 7,000-capacity Azam Stadium.

Having just watch a fascinating World Cup in Brazil devoid of our senior men’s squad – Gordon Igesund’s qualifying failure has been well documented around these parts – there is a general feeling of pessimism in South African football with the PSL and SAFA apparently unable to produce competitive national teams as they bang their heads together.

But given their preparation for the Tanzania qualifier, the Under 17s appear ready to defy this hopelessness and I hope to be able to bring to my readers a taste of our future stars as I work with Dominic Chimhavi, the SAFA Head of Communications, and team manager Barney Kujane,

The AmaJimbos’ preparation has been impeccable thus far. First came two friendlies against Botswana – won 2-0 and 4-0 – followed by last week’s trip to Lesotho, where the youngsters chalked up 2-0 and 1-0 wins. That’s four wins, nine goals scored, NONE conceded. Not bad for a country with no footballing future.

Under 17 coach Molefi Ntseki says: “The preparatory tour was a big success for us. I believe all the traveling has really helped us to prepare thoroughly for Tanzania.

“I am confident that going to Dar Es Salaam we will keep the same spirit that prevailed over the last two weeks, as well as the mental strength. We have become one big happy family. 

"The AmaJimbos are starting to show understanding of what is expected of them and also the demands of the game at international level.”

The future right here: The AmaJimbos squad

The only new addition to the 18-man squad is Liam Jordan of Bidvest Wits who was unable to join the squad in Botswana and Lesotho. Jordan is the son of the late Bafana striker Keryn and has impressed Wits no-nonsense boss Gavin Hunt since he returned to South Africa from New Zealand, where his father ended his goal-laden career. Liam was named Player of the Tournament at the Under 17 South African Championship in April, where Wits beat Chiefs in the final.

Sanele Tshabalala, the young Kaizer Chiefs stopper, was voted best goalkeeper at that tournament in Soweto while Vuyo Mkatshana from Wits scored against Lesotho last weekend. Captain Nelson Maluleka from SuperSport scored three in two games on the tour of Botswana.

The full AmaJimbos squad features SIX players from SuperSport United’s academy and just one from PSL champions Mamelodi Sundowns and Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs:

GOALKEEPERS: Mondli MPOTO (SuperSport Academy); Sanele TSHABALALA (Kaizer Chiefs Academy).

DEFENDERS: Simon NQOI (SuperSport Academy); Samuel NKOMO (Gauteng Province);  Notha Nature NGCOBO (Mamelodi Sundowns Academy); Keanu Gregory CUPIDO (Diambars Academy); Thendo MUKUMELA (Limpopo Province); Katlego MOHAMME (SuperSport Academy); Tshepiso MAHLANGU (SuperSport Academy).

MIDFIELDERS: Athenkosi DLALA (SuperSport Academy); Sibongakonke Ntuthuko MBATHA (School of Excellence); Nelson MALULEKE (SuperSport Academy); Liam JORDAN (Bidvest Wits); Felix NOGE (Harmony Academy); Vuyo Junior MANTJIE (Harmony Academy).

STRIKERS: Luvuyo Katlego MKATSHANA (Bidvest Wits Academy); Khanyiso MAYO (Eastern Cape Province); Edwin SEKHWAMA (School of Excellence).

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.