Posted in News on Aug 07, 2007.
The tournament, which traditionally starts on national woman’s day on the 9th August, and predominantly features a number of u-19 squads from PSL teams will kick off on Thursday and will be played in Pimville in Soweto, this year’s tournament has and international feel to it with two guests teams from Nigeria also participating in the tournament. The Chiefs u-19’s will get to face one of the invited foreign teams when they meet International FC of Nigeria in their third group game on Friday Morning.
Also paired in the same group as the Chiefs youngsters are the U-19 teams of Premier League clubs Bloemfontein Celtic and Benoni Premier United, rounding off group C is the De Beers team. Khuse has been putting is team through their paces since they returned from the June- July school holidays just over a month ago, and is more than pleased with the way the teams preparations for the event has been going. On the evidence of the teams recent performances Khuse is confident that they will be all to go all the way to Sunday’s final.
Thorough preparation
The former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder has ensured that his team are thoroughly prepared for the tournament, even though most of their opponents might be a closed book to him Khuse believes by putting in the extra effort in preparing for the tournament they will be ready for what ever challenges may face them in the days ahead. Khuse said “I have tired to do my home work on the teams that we are facing but it has been a challenge trying to garner enough info on these teams. Especially the over seas team, but the thing is that we need to have done all our work on the training ground before our first game starts on Thursday and we will have gone along way towards reaching Sunday’s final”.
Khuse believes that his team have the self-belief as well as the desire and hunger to reach the final as he further added, “the boys have really put in the time and effort to be more than ready for the tournament, the guys are buzzing and they know that they can go all the way”.
Coaches Plea
The Chiefs youth have participated in the previous two SuperSport U-19 Youth Cups and went all the way to the semi final in 2005 where they lost to eventual winners Orlando Pirates, in 2006 they exited the tournament at the group stage. While Khuse does believe his team has the ability to make it to the final he has made a special plea to Chiefs fans, “more than anything the team needs support I would like to ask the fans to come out especially on Thursday and Saturday as these are holidays to come and lend your voices to our cause. It will be a huge motivating factor for the boys to see that fans have taken time out to support them, we need the extra voices in the crowd because it will give us an added advantage over the opposition”. Khuse for his part is looking to emulate and better the team’s performance from 2005, by going all the way to the final match of the competition.
He concluded by adding, “for us the goal is to reach the final and we are not making any plans for the coming weekend as we intend to be occupied right up until six o clock on Sunday evening”.
GROUPS
Group A
Mamelodi Sundowns
Santos
Black Leopards
Ajax Cape Town
Soweto Select XI
Group B
Silver Stars
AmaZulu
School of Excellence
SuperSport United
Bidvest Wits
Group C
Jomo Cosmos
Orlando Pirates
Enyimba International
Moroka Swallows
Old Mutual Football Academy
Group D
Benoni Premier United
De Beers
Bloemfontein Celtic
Rangers International
Kaizer Chiefs
Kaizer Chiefs u-19 Fixtures at 2007 SuperSport Youth Cup
Thursday 9th August 2007
Field 2, 12:30, Benoni Premier United Vs Kaizer Chiefs
Field 1, 17:30, Kaizer Chiefs Vs De Beers
Friday 10th August 2007
Field 2, 11:20, Kaizer Chiefs Vs Rangers International FC (Nigeria)
Saturday 11th August 2007
Field 1, 11:20 Kaizer Chiefs Vs Bloemfontein Celtic
