24 Apr 2016

The Under 20 national football team suffered a defeat and were knocked out of the  African Cup of Nations tournament which will be held  in Zambia next year when they were beaten  by Zimbabwe 2 – 0.

At  a game played on Friday evening at the Lobatse Sports Complex, the Under 20 boys came into the game as log leaders having won Zimbabwe 1 – 0 in the first leg.

The second leg did not come as expected when the Zimbabwean boys  kick started the game with a leading goal  just a minute after referee Jonas Shongeni blew the whistle to signal the beginning of the game.

Thomas Kadyaridzire did not spare any second after a ball which was passed from the center line fell into his space, capitilised on the chance and scored the first goal of the game.

A goal that seemed to send the Botswana boys into frenzy left them running around the pitch in an effort to correct their mistake and trying by all means to equalise, but to no avail.

Philimon Makhwengwe’s boys tried all they could to move yet more points ahead of their counterparts but kept on being frustrated by the Zimbabwean defence as they could not penetrate them for their ball to reach the keeper’s hands.

Though the game was marred with a lot of rough tackles that quite often than not sent the boys to the ground on injuries they did all they could to salvage the game from going against their tide.

Just before going into half time, the young Zebras suffered yet another blow when the second goal of the game by Peace Makaha gave the Zimbabweans a 2 – 1 lead in aggregate.

Going into half time on the lower side of the score sheet, the young Zebras  seemed to have drawn confidence yet again in the ball and showed intent to give more attacks but their efforts could not end with a shaking of the net.

However the Zimbabwean boys could not score any goals in the second half of the game as goalkeeper Tumisang Selolwane frustrated them with good saves.

In an interview after the game Makhwengwe said he had a very good game plan knowing that they were going to come at his boys and wanted to come from far win the balls and score goals.

Makhwengwe said it was very unfortunate for the boys to have lost concentration at the beginning of the game and just a minute before half time which is a vital period of the game to protect the lead that they came into the game with.

“We didn’t take our chances, we lost many chances and the game of football is all won by taking chances and scoring goals to be in the lead, you don’t score goals ,you don’t win games and that’s where we lost it”, he said.

He however indicated that he has not lost hope on the boys and intends to keep the team intact as they have to graduate to Under 23.

He said all that is left now is to keep the team together, beef it up and build a solid future national football team.

He said a loss of the game does not mean that all is  lost in football adding that the team might be out of the competition but not out of further competitions,.

He said the team has to be kept together and try as much to work on the finishing tactics for the boys and to inculcate into them the tactics of making good finishing that end with goals in the game.

For his part, Zimbabwean coach  Jairos Tapela said his boys were organised and linked very well from upfront though they could have scored more goals especially in the first half.

He said he implored the very same game plan that the boys executed even in the past game back home, though they could not score in their home ground.

He indicated that he was happy with the outcome of the game as winners and looking forward to face Cameroon in the next round.

Looking at the situation, he said he was taking time to prepare especially by concentrating on the development side of the team for his boys to be able to face any team in the world. ENDS