South Africa U23 national team coach Steve Komphela named Amakhosi goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune as part of his twenty man squad, for Amaglug Glug’s next Olympic qualifying game on the 8th September against Ghana in Potchefstroom.

Khune was impressive during the U-23’s last qualification game on the 23rtd of August which was a 1-1 draw against Nigeria’s U-23’s, he only way Khune was beaten in the 1-1 draw was via a rebound after he had initially saved a penalty in the tenth minute of the game.

Khune’s performance against Nigeria did a lot to enhance his reputation as one of the countries up and coming young talents and a few days after starring against the Nigerians, Khune was given his first start with The Amakhosi this past Saturday during their 1-1 draw with Jomo Cosmos. Komphela a former Chiefs and Bafana Bafana defender says that he was never in doubt of Khune’s talents and believes that all Khune needed was the opportunity to show case his abilities.

Deserved platform

While commenting to Kaizerchiefs.com at the press conference where he made public his squad for next week’s crucial Olympic Qualifying game against the Ghanaians, Komphela said of Khune’s debut for the Chiefs first team over the weekend. “I have never ever been in doubt of Khune’s talents and his ability to be a great goalkeeper, even prior to him getting the chance to start for Chiefs he was playing for the U-20 national team, which demonstrates that we also believed that he could do a job for the national teams”.

Komphela went on to add “my philosophy is that every human being deserves a chance in life to demonstrate what they are capable of doing, all Itumeleng needed was a platform to show what a good goalkeeper he is. He got it against Cosmos and it was the perfect game for him to have played, and I feel that he responded well when ever he was called upon and never looked out of his depth”.

Role player

Amaglug Glug’s next assignment on their quest for an Olympic appearance will see them facing another tough opponent in the form of Ghana on the 8th September, Komphela will be expecting a repeat performance from Khune against the young black stars. The fact that Itumeleng will have possibly played in two tough league encounters prior to the Ghana clash, will stand the young keeper in good stead for next Saturday’s Olympic show down.

Komphela ended off his discussion with kaizerchiefs.com by saying “I regularly interact with various club coaches about how players in the u-23 national teams as well as those that I am considering for selection are performing, every time I speak to the Chiefs coach I get good feed back on Itumeleng. As his coach at national level it pleases me to hear that he is giving his all at club level, if he is demonstrating good form and playing regular first team football at Chiefs it can only aide the national team in a positive way”.