allAfrica.com: Africa: First Cut: Rowe is not Taking us Anywhere (Page 1 of 1)

When the Botswana Football Association (BFA) hired Colywn Rowe as national soccer coach, I was one of the people who were not convinced that he was the right man for the job.

I still maintain the same position. I am not convinced that he can take us to the 2010 African Nations Cup in Angola.

People can come up with all sorts of excuses but the more I watch the Zebras, the more I become pessimistic that we will not make it to Angola. My reservations have been based on the fact that Rowe has very limited experience both at club and international team level. By the time he acquires the necessary experience, the campaign will be over. But his duty and mandate is to qualify Botswana for the AFCON and possibly World Cup finals in 2010. He has been hired to give us results - nothing else. So far we have played two friendly games this year and fumbled badly. Against the Braslia select team from Brazil, we were even worse than when we played Zimbabwe. It is the duty of the coach to make his team play the way he wants.

But based on his fielding, it appears that Rowe never consults with local coaches to determine some of the weaknesses or strengths of players. The club coaches know the mentality of these players better and can be of great help to him. By now, he should be in a position to tell how certain players respond when in difficult situations. When a team does not score goals, confidence evaporates. The Zebras are evidently struggling in the last quarter of the pitch or put the other way - in the opposition's danger zone.

Nelson 'Viola' Gabolwelwe and Joel Mogorosi seem to be stuck in a track mode and there is no variation in their play. They rarely cut in to open up space for the other fullbacks or defenders to overlap. By the look of things, the two wingers are over-stretched as there seem to be no load sharing with teammates. Operating from one end of the pitch to the other can be very taxing. As we all know, when a player is tired, his execution becomes poor. Ideally if one can get as many players as possible from one club to form the national team, the better as they easily understand each other. The whole issue about coaching is to have the players understand your philosophy and above all get the combination right.

But I fail to understand why Rowe cannot use Mochudi Centre Chiefs trio of Jerome 'JJ' Ramatlhakwana, Mpho 'Jomo' Mabogo and Pontsho Moloi at the same time more so that they have different qualities and complement each other. So far, they have produced the results for Chiefs. What is the purpose of having the trio in the national team. Tshepo 'Talk Talk' Motlhabankwe has proved that he can be very good as an overlapping right back. This I believe can free Mogorosi so that he can add numbers either in the midfield or upfront. Then there is Diphetogo Selolwane who can be used as midfielder. He can hold the ball and dish the passes while Boitumelo Mafoko can be used as a defensive midfielder. There is no need to improvise at the back when the likes of Shoes Selefa are there. At the moment, the operation area of our midfielders is very narrow. It is all up to Rowe to get it right but because he is relatively inexperienced, it will take him time and by then the campaign for Angola 2010 will be over.

Yes, last week Rowe announced on radio that he was happy with the preparation. Of all the coaches who have handled the Zebras, he has been the luckiest in getting the necessary support from the BFA. What is the difference between the national Under-23 and the Zebras? For me the difference is in the coaching. There is a 5-4-1 approach which is attack-minded as being practised by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in Europe and David Bright in South Africa. With the Zebras, it is difficult to tell what they want when you look at their play. I therefore challenge Rowe to prove that he is the right man for the Zebras. As for the BFA, what about giving Kenneth Mogae a dual role; that of Under-23 coach and assistant to Rowe because it looks like negotiations with Stanley Tshosane are taking too long.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories

Today's Most Active Stories