Utilise regional strength: Dumitru
Lazarus Sauti
A national team can be
best described as countries’ best players assembled to represent their country
of origin.
With the ever advancing
levels of football, national teams in Africa need to come up with strategies
that increase the level of preparedness.
Former South Africa
national team coach, Ted Dumitru, believes the strength of African teams should
be regional.
“The strength of
African footballers tends to be regional, like West Africans being well-built
and having physical strength.
“While we in Southern
Africa have a number of things going for us, like ball skill, agility,
mobility, endurance, the ability to outrun our opponents and the ability to
make it difficult for our opponents to mark us.
“If we can work more on
these strengths and play according to them, then we will do much better at
global level,” said Dumitru.
However, Dumitru said the
problem with national teams in Africa is the coaching model preferred by
football associations.
“The technical approach
to the game must be informed by a number of things and chief among them is the
technical ability of the players.
“You cannot choose a
certain playing style without considering whether your players will be able to
play using that approach,” he said.
To be successful,
African teams must therefore harmonise their strengths and style with the
players at their disposal.
Game plans should be
based on maximising the attributes of African players, their natural
inclinations, technical abilities and psyche.
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