13 Jun 2023

Western Dynamites from Nhabe are among the teams which will play in the DTCB women’s football semi-finals billed for Lekidi Football Centre in Gaborone on July 8.

Dynamites booked their seat in the semi-finals after winning the DTCB northern block women’s football play-offs at Itekeng Stadium over the weekend.

Four teams from the northern block; Orapa All Stars from Boteti, Panda United from Chobe, Heritage Sport Academy from Francistown and Western Dynamites from Nhabe took the battlefield to determine the region’s champions.

Dynamites proved to be the best as they beat all the teams they played against except Orapa All Stars.

Their exceptional skill saw them bag 26 goals from walloping Panda United 19-0 and went on to thrash Heritage Sport Academy 6-0 before losing 1-3 to Orapa All Stars.

Named the competition’s best player, Lorato Motlogelwa (19) said she was happy about the achievement and also that they defeated almost all the teams to win the play-offs and ultimately became the regional champions.

Dynamites coach, Ronald Mmipi, said Nhabe had never lost a game during the regional league games and had conceded a goal.

“The players have exceptional talent in football and are competent, especially on the defense skills. They have been taught that they should never be behind the ball and should always check the blind spot,” Mmipi said.

DTCB corporate affairs practitioner, Duduetsang Mashabile, said they were committed to promoting diversity and sport, adding the aim was to close the gap in football, particularly participation of the girl child.

“The objective was to ensure that the girl child reached professional levels in sports. DTCB is driving inclusivity in sports,” she added.

She, therefore, encouraged teams to continue training and working hard, adding there had been a great increase in participation this year.

“There were more than 130 teams participating as compared to last year where there was less than 50 teams. There was also great improvement in terms of skills displayed and there were more girls developing interest in football,” she said.

Orapa All Stars coach, Oarabile Lelebanye, said they managed to beat the team that had beaten all the teams because they played carpet football which they were also competent in.

“We managed to match and overpower Western Dynamites as they focused on passing the ball many times and used cross to win the game,” Lelebanye said.

On one hand, national women’s football chairperson, Keeng Mosinyi commended Boteti region for doing a good job in hosting the play-offs.

“We have realised that there was only one team that was coached by a woman. We need her to show other women that they could also coach football,” she said.

Meanwhile, three teams from the active blocks would join the reigning champions, Double Action. National play-offs winners would walk away with P250 000 and would book a ticket to the CAF Women’s Champions League regional qualifiers tournament.

Runners up would take home P150 000, bronze medallist would pocket P100 000 while other semi-finalist would get P50 000. ENDS