Bright Starlets to begin 2022 campaign with Sudan
Shirlene Booysen’s Bright Starlets are continuing with preparations ahead of the first 2022 international friendly against neighbouring Sudan this month.
The girls are expected to play two friendlies on February 16 and February 20, 2022, against Sudan’s senior women’s national team.
The South Sudanese side will be hoping to get their first international competition under Booysen after their terrible performance last year, which saw them record heavy losses in games.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the South Sudan Football Association (SSFA), Joseph Apai, said the team will be travelling to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, ahead of their friendlies against the home side.
“The Bright Starlets senior team will be travelling to Khartoum this month, although the date of travel will be communicated anytime soon. But the team is continuing with their preparations,” Apai confirmed.
In one of the team’s training sessions last week in Juba, Booysen lauded her team’s improvement, saying there was a great positive development in terms of creativity among the lads.
She said that after three weeks of preparation, the girls looked better and were ready to take on this year’s challenge.
She said that after entering the FIFA classification for women’s teams, “the South Sudan team is now working to enter the stage of serious preparation for winning matches, and I am proud that the girls are very focused during training’’. She added: “Their level of team spirit, I am optimistic about better performance.”
The team’s head coach said the players are undergoing hard physical and mental training to improve their abilities and gain a better understanding of the game strategy, emphasising the significance of concentration during this first stage of preparation.
Booysen went on to say that the squad’s technical management is putting in a lot of effort to get to the final list, and she praised the players for their team spirit.
Last week, the Bright Starlet’s captain, Amy Lasu Luate, promised the fans good results from her team.
She said the team had learned a painful lesson and would focus on improving their performance.
“Although last year’s results ended in defeats, I have seen much improvement among us as a Bright Starlet team, and I can say we are a really good team at this time,” Lasu said.
“We are not completely poor; we have talents in the country. However, our ladies are not encouraged in the same way that other girls in other countries are. I am glad that we have begun to recognise that our girls can be like other women. “
The captain challenged the citizens to take responsibility by extending their helping hands to support grassroots football as a means of promoting talent among young girls.
