Bree Primary preparations for Morocco going well
JOBURG - Bree Primary School's U12 soccer team preparations for the Danone Nations Cup world finals in Morocco in October are progressing well.
Bree Primary School’s U12 soccer team preparations for the Danone Nations Cup world finals in Morocco in October are progressing well.
This according to school principal and team manager, Devanand Kallicharan, who was speaking at the end of his team’s preparatory match against Bidvest Wits U13 at Sturrock Park.
The school will be representing South Africa for the third time in the Danone Nations Cup world finals, the first being in 2008 where they were knocked out in the group stages.
They returned the following year and were crowned champions, and Kallicharan believes the current squad can match their 2009 counterparts and bring the trophy back home.
“I have no doubt the current squad of boys can stand their own ground and match their 2009 counterparts to make South Africa proud. In all their preparatory games so far, they have shown character,” he said.
To date, the former champions have played two friendlies, one against Mamelodi Sundowns U13 who they walloped 5-1, but were unlucky in the Wits game and were beaten 3-2.
“We’re deliberately playing the boys against older opposition as we want them to get used to European boys who are of much bigger stature than them.”
Asked about their preparations to date, Kallicharan, whose team has another friendly lined up for 23 September against Boksburg’s Farrarmere Primary School said, so far so good.
Although Kallicharan said he had backup players in case of injuries, he would not gamble with his current players as the date for the trip was fast drawing nearer.
“I have instructed the boys to enjoy themselves in the preparatory matches and ensure they do not get injured, but if anything untoward happens, I have a pool of enough players for replacements,” Kallicharan said.
This explained why the boys were a bit cautious in their tackles in the Wits game. If anything, they could have easily drawn the match which was dominated by Wits if one of their strikers had not shot directly at the keeper in the dying minutes of the game.
