National Men’s U-20 Scorpions have begun preparations ahead of the upcoming U-20 West Africa Football Union (WAFU) tournament, Senegal 2020. The tournament originally scheduled from the 6th – 15th November has now been moved forward by CAF/WAFU ‘A’ to the 20th – 29th November 2020.
According to WAFU, the change in dates is necessitated to avoid any clashes over stadium venues during the upcoming Afcon Qualifiers window, with Senegal now playing their home games at Stade Lat-Dior in Thies, one of the potential venues for the upcoming U-20 tournament.
In light of the new schedule, U-20 Head Coach Mattar M’Boge has also changed plans for the training program that was released last week. The revised schedule will now allow the team to go to camp from Tuesday 20th to Monday 26th October in the first phase before releasing the players back to their respective clubs. The training program will further continue with sessions and test matches in the coming weeks with at least four days of training per week before returning to camp prior to the team’s expected departure to Senegal.
Speaking at the team’s opening training session held at the National Technical Training Center in Yundum on Sunday, M’Boge summed up the foremost session, visibly beaming with the talent and quality on show. “The boys have made a very bright start, the standard of training today, with all 32 present, was a delight to see. Physically, we are not where we want to be, but that can only improve during the camp. But you can only be happy when you see these boys put in the work on the training ground“. He urged the boys to keep up the good work and maintain the spirit of togetherness while also thanking the back room staff for their dedication and commitment. . “Quality breeds quality and we urge the boys to keep up their good work so far. Congratulations to all including our backroom staff we just need to keep it going”.
During the session, Coach Mboge took lead to remind the players on some of the protocols aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus that is still crippling the globe.