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Kaizer Chiefs Under-19 head coach David Mathebula believes his young charges have what it takes to compete for national honours at the upcoming Engen Champ of Champs.
Amakhosi earned their ticket to the prestigious tournament by winning the Gauteng Engen Knockout Challenge in July, securing a place among the top youth sides from across South Africa.
The Engen Champ of Champs tournament, which carries the slogan “Where Diski Legends Start”, will be staged at the University of Pretoria’s High-Performance Centre from 2 to 4 October.
With the tournament fast approaching, Mathebula says excitement is already building within the team. The players have begun discussing the competition at training and are focused on going all the way.
The coach is also relishing the opportunity to measure his side against teams from other provinces, while stressing the importance of representing Gauteng to the best of their ability.
“We are ready and we’re happy that we’re playing the national,” said Mathebula.
“You look at the likes of Antalyaspor JPM CT FC, we’ve seen that they have been doing well. We’ve seen AmaZulu qualify and we believe the other provinces will bring stronger teams as well.
“So, it’s all about testing ourselves against the best in the other provinces. But yeah, we are ready, the boys are ready.”
“You can hear they’re talking about the Engen most of the time when we are training. But we are ready and we believe we’ll continue to prepare very well, and we’ll do well because we’re representing the province.”
Mathebula also said that they don’t want to go there and then have a bad tournament.
“We want to go as far as the final and obviously, as I said, they are playing to win. We want to win the Champ of Champs.”
INFO SUPPLIED.