24 Jun 2025

 It is every coach’s desire to see their troops responding well to drills and understanding what it is expected of them.

That is why the senior women national football team, The Mares head coach, Alex Malete is a happy man, seeing that his players are demonstrating massive commitment during the training sessions, with an understanding that they would be competing in the Africa’s highest tournament level.

The training sessions are held in preparation for the TotalErnegies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled to start July 5 in the Moroccan city. He said in an interview that the team was having a productive camp in Casablanca, Morocco, also applauding the players for their determination to bring ‘different versions of themselves’ in terms of quality and level of commitment.

“We are also happy with their high level of passion, they understand that we are preparing for something that is bigger than ourselves,” he said.

The coach, said the players also understood that they were representing Batswana and they were the flag bearers, hence they had to perform with distinction. Talking about training, he said they had been doing a lot of tactical training, at the same time working on the physicality of the game.

“We have been working specifically on what the game will demand from our players, having pushed them we gave them a rest day on Monday, because we could see they were getting tired, and we knew it was going to happen, therefore we had planned for a day off,” he said.

Malete said he was happy that in terms of load management they were doing well, adding that the fact that players did not have muscle injuries was a clear indication that they were doing something right.

“So far, we are good, and we could see progress, at the same time we do a lot of video analysis for the whole team and for individuals because we also have games that they have previously played. We show them what they could have done as well as what they did right for them to improve,” he said.

The head coach said they had also started showing the players videos of opponents, adding that players were gaining confidence from their work in camp, adding that the team’s unity and cohesion were at a desirable level.

“We have managed to create an environment that can sustain success and it is one of the most difficult to do, where you have 26 players from different backgrounds with different personalities and habits, but the environment is conducive for everyone. We are going to play friendly matches, but we are yet to have confirmation letters between the football associations,” he said, adding that it was during the friendlies that commitment and hard work would be tried and tested.

The Mares are in Group B with Algeria, Nigeria and Tunisia and their first assignment against Algeria is on July 6. ENDS