National teams must play on the ground

Cape Town - Owen Da Gama, coach of the national under-23 team, says that all national teams must play the ball on the ground in order to compete in African competitions.

His Amaglug-glug side have just returned from Zimbabwe where they drew 1-1 after playing some scintillating short-passing football.

The result was somewhat of a let-down for Da Gama but he believes that his side, along with the other national teams, are on the right track as they are all employing a similar short passing game.

“We’re never going to compete with these big guys aerially,” Da Gama told Sport24.

“If we put it on the ground and use our pace and technical abilities I think that is the way to go.

“I mean Oupa Manyisa proved it in the Champions league playing against players who don’t like a lot of mobility around them.

“We are still developing an understanding,” he said with regards to his newly put-together squad.

Amaglug-glug are set to face Zimbabwe under-23s in the return leg on August 1.