12 Oct 2022

Inadequate preparations ahead of international games has been blamed for national teams’ dismal performance.

This came to the fore after Botswana lost 0-1 against Zambia in the COSAFA men’s Under 20 Championships game in eSwatini on Tuesday.   

Botswana booted out of the competition after finishing third.

The team was in Group A, which included eSwatini, Mauritius and Zambia.

It only beat Mauritius 1-0 and lost to eSwatini 1-2.

In an interview, coach Oupa Kowa said the Young Zebras and women’s team preparations prior to the tournament were not good, hence their poor performances.

“Therefore, it is something we have to acknowledge and that if we don’t change, we will continue to get dismal results,” he said.

He said Botswana could not prepare last minute and expect to get good results, adding early preperations were the way to go.

“For instance when we played against Zambia, I could see they know each other. I am not saying we are new together, but you could see Zambia’s movements going forward, phases of play, an evidence that they had been together for a long time,” he said.

He said it was paramount to have more working relationships in the national teams.

“I know when I arrived as the head coach, I had discussions with other national team coaches, but these relationships have to be cemented so that we know how to advise each other, looking at who is coming in.  We have to be collective,” he said.

Kowa said with that in place, players would not only progress but success would show in the national teams.  

He said it would also give coaches heads up on the players who would be graduating to their squad, from lower ages.

“The motive is to ultimately have a successful senior team, hence it is important to work together,” he said.

Kowa said he had observed that the country was going through a tough time in football, adding the women had done well recently, but said he did not see the link between the junior and senior teams in terms of the coaching staff.

The coach said it was therefore important that the gap was corrected in all structures as that would bring better results.

He, however, said in their last game against Zambia, he was happy with the boy’s performance given that they executed their game plan well.

“Honestly we played well. Yes we lost but we gave the Zambians a fight.  We corrected what I was complaining about in our encounter against Mauritius,” he said. Kowa said Zambia was lucky to have scored an early goal and defended it until the end of the game. ENDS