01 Dec 2021

When two bulls fight, it is the grass that suffers.

This cliché is expected to come alive tomorrow when the national Under-20 girls’ team meets the ‘stubborn’ Ethiopia in a 2022 Costa Rica FIFA U-20 world qualifiers game to be played in Francistown.

Coach Taphaphiwa Gaebolae is cognisant of the fact that the encounter will be a do or die, considering that they will be facing a very tough opponent.

Equally, Botswana is a very dangerous side, more especially when they move forward. This therefore means if their opponents can ‘blink’ on the day, the local ladies will punish them with an avalanche of goals.

Gaebolae said in an interview that they had been in camp since Monday with 15 players reporting for camp. She, however, said they were joined by 11 players after they finished writing their examinations, adding that she was happy that they all responded well.

“We are happy that they are responding very well, as we are trying to do some new combinations. We played two friendly games with local teams and we won both of them, we were just analysing our combination and to gauge our team shape,” he said.

Further, the coach said the most important objective of the friendly games was for players to gel together, more so that others joined late.

Gaebolae said the positive thing was that they had welcomed their midfielder, Tshegofatsho Mosotho, who had been nursing an injury.

She said Ethiopia had been playing in the CECAFA tournament and they had been following them, just to appreciate their style of play and analyse their strengths and weaknesses.

“We cannot say we know them 100 per-cent, but we have a clue and we can confidently build on that, but to be honest, we are not worried that they were crowned CECAFA champions, but instead we are worried about our team because we want better results,” she said.

The team, she said, was ready to put up a good fight although they were not 100 per-cent fit, given that they did not have ample time in the camp.

The team’s captain, Keitumetse Dithebe ‘Ben-10’ said as players they were determined to represent the country with pride.

“We know they are a good side, we are also good, hence we are at this stage.

It was not by mistake, but it was due to hard work, commitment and resilience,” she said. Ends