07 Sep 2018

The senior women’s national team will leave for Port Elizabeth on Sunday to compete in the 2018 COSAFA Women’s Championship which starts on September 12-22.

Botswana is in Group A with South Africa, Malawi and Madagascar and the team will face Malawi in their first game on Wednesday.

On Friday, the team will take on Banyana Banyana at Wolfson Stadium in Nelson Mandela Bay while their game with Madagascar is scheduled for September 17 at the same venue.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the team’s coach Gaoletlhoo Nkutlusang said they were ready for the championship.

She said they had three camps with breaks in between, adding that their first camp was in August where they had 27 players to choose from.

She said they had their second camp where they played two games against Lesotho. They won 5-0 in the first game and 3-0 in the second game.

Nkutlusang said the international friendly had assisted them in gauging their fitness level. She said in their last camp they worked on their fitness, adding that they also had a challenge in their preparation as most of the players were school going while some were working.

“However, right now all that I can say is that we have selected 20 players who will represent the country with pride and dignity. So I want people to respect my selection and give the girls support,” she said.

She said their aim was to take every game as it came, adding that her team was ready and free from injuries. She, however, said Balotlhanyi Johannes had a knock which they could deal with. She, however, admitted that her camp would miss Thuto Ramafifi who was not in camp due to school commitment in the United States of America.

Ramafifi, she said, was a top player and they were happy she was playing football and studying in the USA because that it would benefit the national team in future.

Vice-captain, Kgomotso Molefe said morale in camp was high and that all the players were looking forward to representing the country in Port Elizabeth.

“Even in our training we put more effort and our coaches are very happy with our work rate, and I want to promise Batswana that we are going there to fight,” said Molefe. ENDS