The Voice (Francistown)
Dubani-wa-Dubani
6 May 2008
The national Under-20 football coach, Oris Radipotsane, is confident the lads will do well in the African Championship qualifiers preliminary second leg against Namibia at the National Stadium on Sunday.
The young lads got an important away goal when the two sides played to a one all draw in the first leg in Windhoek a fortnight ago. The winner on Sunday will go into the next qualifying round of the competition whose finals will be hosted by Rwanda next year.
Speaking to reporters at Lekidi Football Centre, Radipotsane said: "I think we will get a good result on Sunday. The draw in Namibia was a good result for us. The fact that we managed to equalize and come away with a draw gives me the belief we can do well."
He added that they have studied Namibia and "have seen what they can do and have worked on our mistakes since then and will play a better game. Of course they too have seen what we can do but we work around that."
Quizzed on the team's preparations for the game against Namibia, Radipotsane responded: "We have prepared quite well. We played against Notwane and BDF XI and they gave us good practice. The boys lost to BDF XI and beat Notwane. I am happy with the confidence the boys showed in the games hence my belief that we will do well against Namibia.
"All players are fit except two who are down with flu. We hope those two will be recovered by Sunday."
One of those down with flu is Rollers youngster, Aubrey Kebonetse, who scored the equalizer in Namibia.
Radipotsane said he was pleased that two players who could not make the trip to Namibia have joined the squad and will give him more selection choices.
"Tebogo Kenosi, who is a student at Goodhope CJSS, did not travel to Namibia because of school commitments and Balikani Mbutu could not make it because his passport got misplaced. I am happy to have them back in the team," Radipotsane said.
Radipotsane hoped that his charges would improve on their scoring record, which has seen them score three goals in their last two international games. Kebonetse, whose absence might weaken the strike force if he does not recover by Sunday, scored all the goals.
"Scoring is a problem with all the national teams in the country but I am hopeful that we will score against Namibia. We have had Mogakolodo Nkele, Phenyo Molefhe and Moyana Galabgwe scoring regularly in the friendly games we played as part of our preparations and I hope they will carry the form into the game against Namibia."
But the coach is worried by the lack of support for the young lads. "Sometimes I wonder if these kids have parents. At their age they need their parents, uncles, sisters and brothers to watch them. They are the future of our football. In Namibia the boys played well because of the support from the Batswana student community who cheered the boys on and outshouted the Namibians. We need such support to succeed, especially when playing at home." He also took a swipe at the media for ignoring the young team. The game kicks off at 3.30 pm and tickets are P30.00 for the grandstand and P20.00 for other stands.
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