by Benjamin Nyirenda
SuperSport United have been sweating it out in a five-week pre-season camp and head coach Kaitano Tembo is pleased with the progress the team has shown.
United had skeleton squad as most of their players were involved in different tournaments.
Tembo said that some of the players were involved in the COSAFA Cup while the others went to the Tokyo Olympics with the South Africa Under 23.
“I am happy with how we have worked on our mental, technical and physical condition. We have also introduced the young players from the development who will be part of the team this coming season,” Tembo said.
He also said that they are now ready for the new season which kicks off soon, their first game is against Golden Arrows next week.
” Our only set back is the players who didn’t really rest after last season as one had to go to Botswana camp for COSAFA Cup and the other to Zambia for the same tournament but the good thing is that they didn’t go far in the tournament, so they had some time to rest. Now we must integrate them into the team and show them how things are done at the club so that they can adapt well for next season, ” he added.
Tembo added that he gave the players who were at the Olympics another four days to rest and only returned to training on Friday and that he was happy with the progress in training and the way forward.
In conclusion Tembo also said that though they finished fifth in the league last season they have some positives from there as the had a Golden Boot winner which is the first for the team. He said that they have been finishing fifth for the past two season though they have not really reached cup finals that’s a good sign.
“We had top class players like Dean Furman, Thuso Phala and others we have shown that we can have young players who have come into the ford and have done very well despite not having played that much in the previous seasons. The experience of Bradley Grobler will help the young player grow and gain experience which is good for the team going forward, ” he concluded.