Gaborone — The women's senior national football team, The Mares will face Tanzania in the Women's Olympic Football qualifier game to be played in Tanzania on October 26. In their last qualifiers, The Mares had a promising campaign only to be stopped from proceeding further by Zambia.
The Mares won the first leg against Namibia 1-0 at the National Stadium and they played to a two-all draw in the second leg. Against South Africa, The Mares played to a goalless draw, and it was The Mares that won the game 3-2 through penalties in a game played at Orlando Stadium.
The Mares could not handle the Copper Queens of Zambia as they lost 1-0 away and home respectively. Now, The Mares start a fresh campaign against one of the tough teams in Africa.
Assessing the team's chances, Sunday Standard's sport editor, Botlhale Koothopile told BOPA that The Mares' recent performance was questionable. He said the team's showing at the recent COSAFA tournament was worlds apart from what the nation had to come to expect from them.
Koothopile said The Mares were way below their lofty standard, adding that a draw or loss against Namibia or Zimbabwe showed decline.
"Save for Refilwe Tholokele and Sedilame Boseja, we went to COSAFA with the best team, and the players have been together for a long time now," he said.
As such, Koothopile said Batswana expected better, adding that if COSAFA tournament was a dress rehearsal for the Olympics game against Tanzania, then 'people should be scared'.
Furthermore, he said Tanzania were no pushovers, given that they had been progressing over the past years.
"When we last played them at COSAFA in 2022 we drew, since then they have played several games and played well," he said.
He said Tanzania's recent match against Ivory Coast in the WAFCON qualifiers showed them to be a team with lot of character.
He said after losing 2-0 away in the first leg, they then won the second leg and forced the match to go to the penalties, which they won. Koothopile said for The Mares to beat Tanzania, they must be at the top of their game.
BOPA
