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I have to say that I am a little surprised. I was allowed to arrange a friendly match against Saudi Arabia... and this morning I was informed that tomorrow we will start World Cup qualification! A day as no other, I wrote elsewhere.

Well, let's be focused on official matches. I would like to say "we have chances, we will fight for a place". Frankly speaking, we have not a minimal chance to advance.

Our tournament is very tough:
- first match will be against Italy, third in last two European Championships, third (with my Scalambrieri as PG) in last World Cup. The defeat of Italy in Euro semifinal was taken here as a big surprise, and many criticisms were moved against coach. But Italy is still a superpower, with a huge amount of teams (5 full series!), a solid mechanisms, and a great staff. We can win against them only if they will forget to set the team. May be
- second match will be against Argentina. I just say that Argentina is 21st in world ranking, and my Italian mates are not so happy
- third match will be against Honk Kong, 30 places ahead in the ranking, and famous for last season impressive expansion of managers (and consequent current deflation)

So far, South Africa have never won any single WC match. We will try to do something, but as already stated, consolation is our goal.

I am pretty well satisfied of this day "like no other".

I decided to bring just 10 players with me. Last season I called 12 at the very beginning and lost some flexibility. This one I will be more careful on using slots - somebody calls it "experience"

It is difficult to comment this very long day. I would not enter in the matches. Against Italy, there was no chance, as expected. Against Saudi Arabia, our opponent was too poor to be true (although I am checking with their coach how "poor" the team was).

In our first match of WC qualification, Italy took leadership almost immediately, but we kept match balanced for almost all first quarter! Sabatha Resha inspired Jabulani Machungo for a two-handed dunk at 4.10, for the first and last advantage of South Africa! Yes, we led the match, and not at the first shot. However, after just ten seconds Altomonte definitely broke balance with a jumper, and we had no additional chance. The match slipped away since half of the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, in pure garbage time, South Africa showed its pride. A good defense, point by point, kept us in line with Italy, slightly reducing gap till final shot by Medagliani, closing 107-71.

Considering same attitude, it is a reasonable result, as this is more or less the gap we gave to almost (but two!) opponents in last African Cup. Juggie Wagana was again our MVP, playing head to head againts well known Spedaliere (playing against my team in my series) and Medagliani (trained by one of our scouts!). His 10/15, 20pts + 17rbs is a great performance against a top team.

I much appreciated Schartner's progresses in defense (just 3 fouls and quite good defense against a fiece opponent), and Machungo added an acceptable performance. Moreover, if you compare this match with SA-Misr last season, you could appreciate major improvements in average performances in attack and defense, while ball circulation advanced and rebounding is still our Achille's heel. But the proof that Italy was afraid of us is in the injury occurred to Kolane caused by a bad foul

With 5 minutes to go, South Africa set a record starting a parallel match against Saudi Arabia. I decided to do the other way round than against Italy. Starters and rotations were inverted, shifting the attack to a motion. Defences dominated the beginning, with a balanced match till 3-pointers by a good Mahabane at 0.11 in Q1. That was our break. The match proceeeded with some breaks by us and long balanced periods. This time, our MVP was Chipako Mbangwa, 10/19 26p in a very interesting performance, although pushed by poor opponent. I liked Changa Mahabane, opposed to a good counterpart, 8/12 18p and 12r. Defense was reasonably good, causing many lost balls in our opponents.

Next time we will play against Argentina, not as good as Italy, but far ahead of us. Final match will be against Hong Kong, that showed some weaknesses today.

With the beginning of the official season, our top 10 were included in the roster. There are no big surprises, as excluded will have further chances over the seasons, and this is the best team we can set.

By end of qualification, we could add 1 or 2 players, to reach the optimal number of 12-13 at the beginning of consolation. Ideally I would add one guard and one center/forward.

Among guards, the most probable is Hendrick Adam. Themba Mthebe has very good chances too with his secondaries, although Adam is slightly ahead.

Among tall men, we have the unbelievable condition of abundance. Kevin Mauley is a very promising talent, with a big need of IS and some RB. The same for well known Diliza Issa, a step behind Mauley but with defensive specialty. The 20's Bhekimpi Chisiza, Lucky Hintsa and especially Laurent Bernard are more than good prospects. Let me also add outsiders Junaid Basinyi and Baruti Dingane. If I should choose today, probably Mauley, Issa and Bernard would join the team, but it is unlikely I will add 3 tall men soon, and skill increase and shape will make the difference.

One season ago, we didn't have all these chances. I am very happy for dealing with this problem.

I invite all managers to do the best for our increasing talents!

It is my first delay in publishing match report: it is an effect of staying focused on matches while summer period + real life require some attention.

Against Argentina, ranked #25 in the world, the match was decided before starting. With two starters with 5 in shape and Wagana just 6, we had not enough power to be effective. It never happened, and it made no sense to include additional players, as Wagana cannot be replaced in our roster, and Argentina stayed far beyond us.

Dingane Kolane led South Africa at the beginning, giving us leadership with a 3 pointers. Then Argentina, dominating rebounding, took slowly but inesorably match leadership. Defense made all the difference, and we could not increase it as much as to compete against them.

Chipako Mbangwa, our MVP, played an impressive match, scoring 26 points with 10/21, adding 6 rebounds, against a solid SF. It was our match surprise, although I expected some good performance, and could be more than an option in our future. Very good match by Schartner, while our tall men was overwhelmed by their opponents.

Final result is a more than honourable 101-86. slipping over 10 points gap just in fourth quarter.

In the other match of our tournament, Hong Kong committed suicide, trying a fooly MOTS against superpower Italy. Final score was a disastrous 136-106, adding a tremendous impact on TS. If shape will assist us (I personally wrote to all managers about it!), we have good chances to catch our first victory in this tournament, before entering consolation.

Great win against Hong Kong. 1-2 is not too bad considering the group we were in.

South Africa vs HK: our last opportunity to delete our "zero" in "won" cell in World Cup tournaments. It was the opportunity to spend some attitude, while HK had problems due to its recent MOTS against Italy. I am proud of this result!

Before the match, I decided a little revolution. Our good talent Lefa Kadzamira is out of the team: his training program is currently not sustainable (more than 100' per week + bad skill training). I added Henrick Adam, who was already close to enter into Guards group, and Laurent Barnard, a good 20 years old player with good chances to be our Wagana next season.

HK tendencies, conditions, and roster made us confident about an outside attack, so a 3-2 zone was a need to limit their fighters, while rebounds was expected to be our sweet spot because of TS. A motion looked like our best option, considering the bad shape of Wagana and other tall men far from perfection.

HK took the leadership in Q1, counterattacked by a positive Kolane, who gave us our first advantage @7.24. A 6-0 partial brought to 7-12, but Adam and Barnard shook the match, bringing back to balance and leadership again 16-14. With some excess in fouling (a misunderstanding of "killer instinct" concept by Mtolo!?), we closed Q1 trailing by 2, 21-23.

In Q2 HK got two, but finally the so far inconsistent Wagana tied by scoring 2 FT's. Kolane scored 3, HK reacted, and at 50 we were 30-30. The good news were about dominating rebounding, very relevant in a low score match. Adam and Barnard again, with good assistance by Schartner, pushed SA ahead by 4. First half closed with SA leading by three 40-37.

Schartner breaked the game at the beginning of Q3. HK reacted till to 47-47, Kolane tried again but we were 51-51 @4'. Three by Machungo, then Adam again (what a match!), then Mbangwa close to the buzzer, with South Africa entering last 12' leading by 1, 62-61.

It was then Machungo with the typical double (assist+score, after Schartner, Barnard, Kolane), before Wagana show. Our Center grabbed an OR giving us a maximum gap of 8, then we started a point by point fight, were rebounding had a key role. A FT by Schartner set the score 90-80, before controlling last minute.

This time, we didn't fail "by few points". We won.

In this historical moment, I think that MVP should be assigned to two players: Dingane Kolane and Juggie Wagana respectively outscored and dominated at rebounding, being our pillars for this victory. I much much appreciated Barnard and Adam, found good contributions by Mbangwa, Machungo and Schartner.

Let me know take a moment's rest, after having changed something little in SA history.

By next days, we will start consolation tournament. We won 1 match out of 8 two seasons ago, and 0/8 in the first edition. Gaining playoffs is more than a dream (you probably should have 5-3 record!), but let's see our calendar first. I can promise you will be proud of this team, of your players, of our players.

Another goal was reached.

After update, our ranking increased by 10 places, up to #63! It is the highest since explicitly tracked on match lists, and probably of our history (after ancient ages!).

Now, the consolation. As having participated to qualification we will start with 0-2 record.

Our opponents will be:
Sakartvelo
Hayastan
Poland
Rep Dominicana
Island
Puerto Rico

It would be a dream to win 4 games. Depending on conditions, training, shape, (and opponent's behaviour...) we could probably win 2-3 games. So far, South Africa U21 record in consolation is 1/15!

Poland and Iceland will be tough but the other 4 can be won but will still be close games. I think winning 3 games would be good. Just need to plan everything out and you should be good.

Poland and Iceland will be tough but the other 4 can be won but will still be close games. I think winning 3 games would be good. Just need to plan everything out and you should be good.

Poland is unreachable. Iceland looks like at first sight. About others, our next opponents is not understandable at the moment. Others are under discovery at this moment. Winning all four looks like not so realistic at this moment, as you have to consider also ts and training (if Wagana will not be in good shape we will have a huge problem...)

Yeah I understand what you are saying. We are good enough to beat 4 of the teams but with having to manage our enthusiasm well and having bad game shape it looks like we wont be able to win all 4 games.

Yeah I understand what you are saying. We are good enough to beat 4 of the teams but with having to manage our enthusiasm well and having bad game shape it looks like we wont be able to win all 4 games.

yes. and add also delivery of training programs!

among all these factors, I can just influence shape and trainings.

I can manage TS (I will as last season), but the problem is to harmonize it with schedule

Interesting challenge anyway