17 Oct 2018

The national soccer team, Zebras’ hope of collecting maximum points in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers suffered a blow as they were held to a goalless draw by a stubborn Burkina Faso at the Francistown Sports Complex on October 16. 

The game, which was played under floodlights, was their fourth of the campaign after they lost three consecutive games to Mauritania, Angola and the Stallions of Burkina Faso. 

Zebras have yet to score a goal in the campaign and are left with two games, away to Mauritania and a home game against the Palancas Negras of Angola.

While Major David Bright’s charges started the game positively, lack of decisiveness in front of goal left many fans who had thronged the evening encounter frustrated.

Onkabetse Makgantai for Zebras was a thorn in the Stallions rear guard but lack of support from his teammates and poor decision making saw all his efforts go to waste. 

The pint-sized attacker who plies his trade with Baroka F.C. in South Africa’s ABSA Premiership, continuously raided the Stallions goal area but all his hardwork came to naught. Most of his shots at goal either went wide or over the bar. 

His combination with Mpho Kgaswane was a marvel to watch as they exchanged well calculated passes only to be denied by goalkeeper, Herve Koffi in the Burkinabe goals.

The visitors, fourth place finishers in the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, which they hosted, and finalists in 2013 on the other hand proved dangerous when making forays into Kabelo Dambe’s goal area. 

Buoyed by a galaxy of stars from major European leagues in their line-up, the visitors adopted a cautious but threatening approach to the game. 

Abou Ouattara of KV Mechelen in Belgium and Isidore Bertrand Traore of Olympique Lyonnais in France, especially, proved to be dangerous when in possession and exploited a weakness in the Zebras midfield, which was disjointed with the partnership of Mosha Gaolaolwe and Mogakolodi ‘Tsotso’ Ngele out of sorts. 

The Mamelodi Sundowns player was, especially conspicuous by his quietness in the middle of the park. On a good day, the silky left-footed player initiates most of the Zebras attacks but on Tuesday his impact on the game was nothing to write home about.

 While the Zebras have often struggled defensively against West African teams when it comes to set pieces and defending corners, on the day, captain, Simisane Mathumo was rock solid, doing all the dirty work in the danger area. 

While Tshepo Maikano and Thero Setsile showed lapses of inexperience, the Zebras defence worked as a collective to thwart any offensive displays from the visitor’s strikers especially, Traore who proved to be a difficult customer to contain. 

Burkinabe captain and longtime player, Charles Kabore, a burly defensive midfielder from FK Krasnodar in the Russian Premyer Liga though called to action on several occasions, used his big frame to cut off any positive moves from the home team attackers. 

Trying as hard as they did, Kabelo Seakanyeng, Makgantai and Kgaswane were reduced to ordinary players on the day. While the host had goal scoring opportunities, most of their shots on target landed safely in Koffi’s hands. 

The Stallions’s game plan worked well as they managed to frustrate the Zebras through a combination of time wasting and feigning injuries with every tackle. 

In the second half, the game continued with the Zebras asking more questions but their lack of urgency was their main undoing. Coach Bright, who is still in search of that elusive win replaced Ngele with Segolame Boy  but the Township Rollers midfielder could not make an impact as most of the time he was isolated. 

Tumisang Orebonye came in for Mpho Kgaswane while Burkinabe coach, Paulo Duarte brought in Alain Traore for Razack Traore and Jonathan Pitroipa for Abou deep in the second half.

 In the other group game played on October 16, Mauritania narrowly beat Angola 1-0 in Nouackchott. 

After this round of fixtures, Mauritania leads the group with nine points, Burkina Faso is second with seven points, Angola sits at six points while Zebras is languishing at the bottom of Group 1 with one point.

 The Zebra’s next game is away to Mauritania on November 18. ENDS