Tshepo Molwane
25 March 2008
Despite travelling to West Africa for their last qualifier of the 2008 Olympic Games with a depleted squad, Under-23 coach Kenneth Mogae is confident that his side can come back with a positive result.
The national Under-23 side play Cameroon in Yaounde tomorrow night but a win for the Young Zebras will not make any difference as the hosts have already booked a ticket to the Beijing Games.
Football pundits say the game is of no significance, but Mogae disagrees. "It is wrong for people to say the game is of no importance. It must be realised that five years ago, most people were not taking our football seriously but with the current developments in Botswana, things have changed." Mogae said winning in Yaounde will help improve Botswana's FIFA rankings and might not play the preliminary games in the qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic Games.
He further pointed out that they expect a tough game from their opponents as the game lies in the FIFA calendar and there is a possibility that "Indomitable Lions" will have their strongest squad. Having held the Young Zebras to a controversial goalless draw at the National Stadium in Gaborone last year, Cameroon would not want to lose to the Botswana side in front of their passionate supporters. The Young Zebras were denied a legitimate penalty by South African referee Jonas Nhlapo, something which could have made the last qualifiers interesting. On paper, Cameroon are favourites but Batswana have also showed that they are capable of springing a few surprises.
Mogae told Monitor Sport after their training session on Sunday morning that they are thin upfront, but will have to do with the players they have in camp.
With Moemedi 'Jomo' Moatlhaping and Jerome 'JJ' Ramatlhakwana in the senior national team preparing for their international friendly against Zimbabwe at the National Stadium tomorrow, the Young Zebras have only Mochudi Centre Chiefs' Kekaetswe 'Mara' Moloi as the only proven scorer. This was not helped by the absence of South African-based Tebogo Sembowa due to injury.
"We were expecting Sembowa but he has withdrawn. But I understand he played against Santos on Friday (for ECCO City) and with this, you start questioning the integrity of some players.
The worst part, he has been in Gaborone but has never bothered to report for camp," said Mogae.
Missing the trip to Cameroon from the squad that beat Morocco 2-0 in Gaborone is Dirang Moloi, who is with the Zebras. Left-back Boniface Makolo is still sitting out after being banned by FIFA following an issue of misconduct when the Young Zebras lost to Guinea in Conakry last year.
The only new face in the team, which left for West Africa yesterday, is Boteti Young Fighters' defender Kereeditse Maphane. The team returns home on Sunday.
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