WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE FLAMES?

Picture: The Black Mamba.

The next game for the Flames is against Guinea on September 5, 2009. What are the Flames going to do between now and 5th September?

The Flames could have benefited from the COSAFA Senior challenge
which was supposed to take place this month. The COSAFA Senior Challenge is in limbo following South Africa’s Mpumalanga Provincial Government’s singing a different tune with regards to sponsoring the annual event. The Mpumalanga Provincial Government, which sponsored the event last year, has made a U-turn on their earlier commitment to bankroll the tournament for the next three years, citing the global financial meltdown as the main reason.

COSAFA Senior Challenge sponsorship aside, most people are of the view that the tournament needs to be included on FIFA calendar so teams can benefit by having all their foreign based players. They argue that even though the tournament is regarded as a developmental competition, it also helps the teams to prepare for major tournaments such as the World Cup and Africa Nations Cup. The tournament is played over a longer period so I don’t think FIFA would include it on its calendar considering that already there are not enough FIFA dates. Initially, the tournament was supposed to take place in May but was postponed (sponsorship?). The month of May could have been convenient. Most leagues were off-season so most COSAFA teams would have been able to showcase their foreign-based players because it would indeed help them prepare for World Cup / Africa Nations Cup joint qualifiers. The month of July is not convenient because most clubs already started training for the 2009-2010 season. So even if the tournament takes place this month it won’t be very beneficial to the Flames in regards to the Guinea game in September because 1. they will be idle the entire month of August (August 12 FIFA Fixed Friendly Date is meaningless because it doesn’t prepare teams for competitive matches. Note: Next competitive matches are on September 5/6) and 2. professional players will not take part. Team Cohesion?

So, what do the Flames need to do in order to prepare for the Guinea game? Camp in South Africa? Would it really help? I don’t think it matters where the team camps. When the Flames beat Egypt (1-0), DRC (2-1)and Djibouti (8-1) they camped in Malawi. You can take a team anywhere you want but if wrong tactics are applied during the game and if the players lack mental skills, camping away from home is just a waste of money. Mental skills can be taught at home. Seriously, are the Flames losing because they don’t camp away from home? You can take me out of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of me?