Owen Sibanda
22 October 2009
The COSAFA Senior Challenge Group B winners will be decided today as second placed Zebras of Botswana seek to dispatch Seychelles and clinch a quarterfinal berth. Surprise leaders Comoros and Swaziland are still in with a chance to make it to the quarterfinals.
The fourth team in the group, Seychelles can play the potential party spoilers if they beat Botswana in the second match this afternoon.
Kick-off is 3.30pm.
Swaziland take on the Comoros in the opener at 1.30pm. The Comoros lead the standings with four points, the same as Botswana but are at the top due to a better goal difference, while Swaziland are third with three points.Zebras' coach, Stanley Tshosane, believes the three teams have an equal chance of progressing. "Everyone (except Seychelles) still has a chance to go through, no one is celebrating as yet," he said after his team's 1-0 victory over Swaziland on Tuesday.
This is the first time that Botswana will be playing the Seychelles in the regional tournament. Tshosane said his team will concentrate on the game against Seychelles and will not worry about the duel between Swaziland and Comoros.
His Zebras have played two different types of matches- a fast and creative opener against Comoros and a jaded one against the Swazis."We need to concentrate on our game and not look at the other match.
Naturally, the result will affect our approach to the game, but we must remember, our destiny is in our hands," he said. Having made changes to the team for the second match. is Tshosane tempted to tinker again?"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. We will see how things work out in a light session tomorrow (yesterday)," he said. He stated that it is always tough to play an opponent for the first time. "But we have seen them play and I suppose they have been watching us."
The exciting Pontsho Moloi, winner of two man-of-the match awards, central striker Onalethata Tshekiso and Mogkathi Mogkathi are threats to any defence and should again start in the duel against Seychelles.
The Zebras reached the semi-finals of the COSAFA castle Cup in 2006 and repeated the same feat in 2007.
In 2006, they were beaten by South Africa in a penalty shootout, but the following year they caused one of the biggest upsets, stunning World Cup finalists Angola.
Seychelles head coach, Richard Holmund, said despite the two defeats, they are still aiming to end the tournament on a high. "I said before the start of the tournament that we always want to improve on our results. We have lost two games; we have one to play,which I believe we can still win. We still have the confidence to win," he said after the loss to Comoros, which he blamed on a concentration lapse late in the second half.
The Seychelles is a small country but has made fine strides at international level, winning two of their matches in the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers when they beat both Zimbabwe and Zambia at home.
Their biggest win in the COSAFA Cup has been the 7-0 dismantling of Mauritius in Witbank, South Africa in 2008 where Phillip Zialor scored four goals and remains the only player to do so in the competition. Their biggest loss was against Madagascar (5-0) in Maputo, Mozambique in 2007. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is through to the quarterfinals after Lesotho only managed a narrow 1-0 win over Mauritius. Lesotho needed to win by at least four clear goals to go through.
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