07 Jul 2024

Gaborone United (GU) ladies are the winners of the DTCB Women’s Football Championship and P250 000 richer after beating Tawana Top Girls from Orapa 8-1 in a final played at the National Stadium on Saturday.

GU goals were scored courtesy of Ontlametse ‘Neymar’ Gaonyadiwe’s five goals while Atlang Busang, Laone Moloi and Tlamelo Pheresi score one goal each and Tawana Top Girls solo goal was converted from a penalty spot by Tebelo Ndara.

GU’s road to the final was a smooth one as they demolished Makgabz City of Tsabong 25-0 with Gaonyadiwe scoring 11 goals, Keitumetse Dithebe three, while Busang, Moloi and Palesa Mokopakgosi scored brace each.

Tawana reached the final after beating Selebi Phikwe-based Granada 2-0 courtesy of Tiny Baikani and Ndara.

During the final game, Tawana looked sharp in the opening minutes of the game giving Gaborone United little respect.

Though pundits predicted GU will score in the first five minutes of the match, that was not to be as they were frustrated until the 17th minutes when Gaonyadiwe penetrated their defence and scored.

From that moment on, goals were galore as GU frequented the opponent’s goal area.

GU coach, William Monene, in a post-match interview, said tactically his charges were good, although the game was not flowing, given that their opponents were down due to injuries, adding that alone killed the momentum of the game.

However, he said their game plan to build from the back, go wide and to play more balls in the box, worked, hence they managed to score eight goals.

Tawana coach, Onamile Motamma said the players started the game very well, as they applied a defensive approach given that their opponents were very good at passing the balls.

He said their formation was informed by the fact that, where they come from, they use a hard and half ground, but National Stadium ground was too big for his players.

Motamma said as the game progressed they felt that they wanted to reduce goal deficit through attacks, adding that the defence was also pulled along to help with attacking.

“We made a blunder there, but it is a learning curve, but generally I am happy with my players’ performance,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the losers’ final, Granada ladies beat Makgabz City 8-0 to win a bronze medal.

GU also won a trophy, while the runners up won P150 000, position three won P100 000 while position four P50 000.

GU won all individual awards with Gaonyadiwe winning double; Golden Boot award and P15 000 as well as P10 000 for the Player of the Tournament award.  

The coach and goalkeeper of the tournament awards went to Monene and Pheresi respectively each walking away with P10 000. Ends