Kimberley’s Real Madrid FC will this week continue with its team rebuilding exercise ahead of the anticipated restart of the Safa regional and provincial leagues in August.
Real Madrid assistant coach Victor Mnumza said they had last week taken 15 new recruits through a full match practice session. The new players took the field against Real Madrid’s team that was knocked out of the last ABC Motsepe league play-offs where the Kimberlites missed an opportunity to get promoted to the National First Division then known as the Glad Africa League.
Mnumzana said they were far from satisfied with last week’s result from the practice session. They will this week persist with the recruitment drive which they will draw down before the league restarts in August.
As regards the disaster that befell the team at the national play-offs Mnumzana had this to say: “The team was a bit young. For many of us it was the first time at the play-offs.
“Most teams that had made it to the play-offs had been there before. The situation was unfamiliar for most of us. It was also the first time that we had won the ABC Motsepe League.
“It was a learning curve for us from which we have taken serious lessons.”
In the lower former SAB League, now renamed Frances Baard Regional League, Macarena FC were also hard at work rebuilding their squad. Team coach Lebogang Kgosiemang said: “We finished seventh in the league last season. We are working at improving on that score.”
Kgosiemang said that they had opted to promote some of their development players to the senior team. In Macarena’s case the team harvested from their feeder team Tshwaragano FC.
“We are still open to taking on more recruits in this preseason,” he said.
