SuperSport United and national under23 defender Luke Fleurs took an opportunity to talk to his club’s website on the eve of the big match in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

South Africa take on hosts Japan in the opening game on Thursday, July 22.

The match will be held at the Tokyo Stadium, kickoff is at 13:00 (CAT).

How was the domestic camp prior to your departure?

The domestic Camp in Nelspruit was a really important camp for us as a group because it was a different setting and different altitude. It was extremely hot over there. So I think that preparation will help us coming into this tournament because the heat here is ridiculous.

What is your take as part of the historic Tokyo Olympics squad?

It’s a privilege being part of this team. I'm with a bunch of talented players and really good humans. It wasn’t easy to adjust but my style of play impressed the coach.

Although the squad didn’t do well in Egypt recently, I assume the experience helped you to improve your game going into a big event, the Tokyo Olympics?

Unfortunately we didn’t do well in Egypt as a group but we learned a lot and now we’ll just try and not make the same mistakes that we made back in Egypt.

Please tell us about your experience in Tokyo upon arrival?

It’s really not a good time to land in Tokyo because of this pandemic we are facing. We’ve waited at the airport for hours sorting out paperwork and obviously doing the COVID 19 tests. So it was really draining, especially after a 16 hour flight.

The Tokyo Olympics is a big opportunity to some of the players including yourself to catch the eye of some international scouts?

It’s a huge opportunity to catch the eyes of the best scouts but we are not going to focus on that if I’m being honest, we just want to do the country proud and come home and celebrate.

How is your training session programme ahead of your opener against Hosts Japan?

Our training sessions didn’t go as planned because of the two players that tested positive for covid 19. But so far we got a couple of sessions in. Hopefully it can push us through this first 90 minutes coming up on Thursday. And we’ll take it from there.

How does it feel working with your teammates in the squad including coach Kwanele Kopo?

It’s always a great feeling to see your own teammates that you work with every day and you see the hard work they put in just to become better players. And clearly the hard work paid off. But it doesn’t stop now. The challenging part is to stay up and not go down.