18 Feb 2018

Poor clearance of corner-kicks and set pieces cost Black Forest valuable points against visiting Orapa United at the Molepolole Sports Complex on Saturday. The Ostriches converted two corner kicks in either half to win the game 2-1.

Just after the hour mark, Orapa United were awarded a corner kick which was taken by speedy winger, Kobamelo Kebaikanye.

 The ball found towering skipper, Olekantse Mambo unmarked inside the box, but his header was excellently parried over bar by Forest shot-stopper, Itumeleng Selapa

One would have thought that Forest would make good their initial mistake of dealing with the set piece, but the second corner was almost an exact replica of the first one, with Kebaikanye again finding Mambo unmarked on the exact spot, but this time the difference was that the skipper managed to beat Selapa for the first goal of the game.

The Ostriches then managed to launch sporadic attacks and were the better team in the midfield. However, Forest managed to rise from their slumber in the dying minutes of the half, with Gofaone Mabaya and Moalodi Tlhalefang troubling the Ostriches’ defence.

Orapa United made the game safe in the second half when they found the net, again from a corner kick when Obonye Moswate slotted home in the 61st minute.

With five minutes of regulation time left, Tlhalefang caped his good performance with a goal when he slotted in a rebound after Orapa United shot-stopper, Lesenya Malapela parried a shot at his feet. The failure by Forest to deal with corner kicks was equally a concern to their greenhorn gaffer, Gilbert Mushangadzike who admitted that it was a problem they would have to deal with sooner rather than later.

“Looking at the overall performance, we managed to fight against Orapa United and were only killed by lack of concentration when defending corners.

 In modern football you cannot afford to make such mistakes,” he said. Mushangadzike said even though they lost the game, he was not worried yet as he is aware that the loss was partly due to the fact that his players are not yet used to his playing style. “I have been here only three days and I hope that soon we will rhyme,” he said.

Mushangadzike also lamented lack of video clips, saying it made it difficult to study his next opponents. “I am still very new to Botswana football and the availability of video clips would have come in handy for me considering that I still haven’t seen many of the teams’ play, so I mostly prepare for games without any idea on my opponent,” he said.

Bongani Mafu, also new at Orapa Untied as he has been languishing on the side-lines awaiting his work permit, said that even though his team did not play to its best, maximum points was all that mattered. He also said that the poor performance by his team may also have been because of the absence of some of his regular players.

 Mafu however, indicated that he would have to work on a few things in his team, such as lack of cohesion in the defence. Ends