Amaglug-glug, the South African under-23 national soccer squad, assembled in Pretoria on Tuesday to start preparing for Saturday's Athens Olympic Games qualifier against Ghana at HM Pitje Stadium in Mamelodi.

"We are delighted everything went well in our first training session, the boys looked sharp and we are bracing ourselves for a tough match against Ghana," said coach Kenneth Kubheka.

"Our main objective is to win the match convincingly, at the same time pray that the other two countries in our group will do us a favour by playing a draw.

"The boys are well aware about the importance of Saturday's game, it is our last hope to qualify for the Olympics." Some of the youngsters who will be looked upon to send Ghana back home empty-handed include Benedict Vilakazi, Gabriel Mofokeng, Joseph Makhanya and Edward Malinga.

Ghana, who beat South Africa 1-0 in the first leg in Accra late last year, will arrive in the country on Thursday.

They are on top of the Group D log, with Amaglug-glug languishing at the bottom. South Africa play their last qualifier against Algeria away later this month.

Kubheka also announced that Amaglug-glug will play a warm-up match giants Sundowns in Mamelodi on Wednesday at 10am.