Gaborone - — The national women's football team, The Mares are on the brink of making it to the knock-out stages of the currently ongoing Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women's Championships in South Africa.
The Mares will today take on The Mighty Warriors of Zimbabwe in a top of the table clash.
The Mares, who are in Group C together with Zimbabwe, Namibia and Lesotho currently occupy position two with four points from two games, two points behind group leaders, Zimbabwe.
Although Namibia have a chance at equalling The Mares on points should the former win against Lesotho and Botswana lose against Zimbabwe, The Mares currently have an advantage of a better goal difference, but they will nevertheless have to come to the game with all they can. This because with the tournament comprising of three groups instead of the traditional four, it means that only group winners and the second best team from all the groups will progress.
The Mares coach, Mohambi Saulos will be hoping his ladies would be spurred on by the morale boosting 3-0 win against Lesotho on Monday, which helped keep the local ladies in contention for the knock-out stages.
In the game against Lesotho, Saulos put his trust in the team that drew with Namibia in the first game as he made no changes to the starting lineup.
He will however, have to ensure his frontline is more clinical to match his opponents.
The Mares will rely on the evergreen players such as skipper, Kesegofetse 'Odinga' Mochawe, Lone Gaofetoge, Ontamemtse Gaonyadiwe, Lesego Radiakanyo and Keitumetse 'Ben 10' Dithebe among others.
Saulos was quoted in the South African media indicating concern at his team's low conversion rate.
"We often score much fewer chances than we create, and we will have to sharpen up and be more clinical in future games," he said.
Saulos was also wary of putting pressure on his team, saying that they preferred taking each game as it came, as playing with games ahead in mind had a potential often led to players being unnecessarily cautious and thereby making a poor display.
BOPA
