Ronaldo scores AWCON goal
Kabelo Boranabi | Saturday February 26, 2022 06:00
It was a very special moment for the nation as for the first time a women’s football team was to play a FIFA accredited match. The Mares were invited to a series of friendly matches in a tournament held in Zimbabwe. The team’s debut was one to forget as the local girls were hammered 14-0 by South Africa on April 19, 2002.
A 3-0 defeat to Eswatini followed before they lost 7-1 to Mozambique ending the Harare tournament winless. However, it was a moment to savour for the then young Double Action striker, Nkutlwisang. In the last game against Mozambique, 'Ronaldo' scored the team’s first ever goal. “I still remember that goal, in the 7-1 defeat to Mozambique; that was my only goal with the national team because I did not play many games thereafter. I will forever cherish the moment,” Nkutlwisang said.
From pitiable displays in Zimbabwe, the Mares vanished from the international scene only to return to the 2008 Africa Women’s Championship (now called, Africa Women’s Cup of Nations - AWCON). In the five-year hiatus from international football, Nkutlwisang established herself as a serial poacher in the local league football and earned comparisons to Brazil's iconic striker, Ronaldo.
She until to this day carries the ‘Ronaldo’ monicker. The team, in the first international match in five years, were knocked out by Namibia in the first round of AWCON, losing 9-1 over two legs. ‘Ronaldo’ retired thereafter only to return in 2009 to take up the assistant coach role at the then Super League side, Township Rollers as well as the national Under-20 team.
At the time, Nkutlwisang was working on her coaching badges. She was elevated to the senior team, the Mares as head coach the same year. Ronaldo’s team once again failed to make it beyond the first round of qualifications losing to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe in the 2010 and 2012 editions, respectively.
The team had a leaky defence as the defeats did not carry respectable score lines. A series of fails followed as Nkutlwisang and the team did not make it to the 2014 and 2016 AWCON editions while they also missed out on the 2016 Olympic Games. Nkutlwisang, however, had led the Mares to their biggest win, a 7-0 victory over Mauritius in the first round of the 2016 AWCON qualifiers. The Mares went on to win the away leg 4-0, the most goals the team has scored beyond the country’s borders. But were eliminated by South Africa.
There were signs of improvement from both the players and their coach. As in 2018, the Mares failed to make it to the COSAFA Women’s Championship knock out stage by a whisker after losing to South Africa.
The team reached the semi-finals for the first time in 2019 despite playing with a ‘B’ team. In the same year, Ronaldo knocked out nemesis, South Africa in the 2020 Olympic games qualifiers, only to be eliminated by Zambia. It was the first ever time the team had made it past the knockout round. In 2020, the Mares reached the COSAFA Championship final, another first for the team.
With the confidence and belief starting to kick in, the focus was now the 2022 AWCON spot. The games started later than the scheduled period due to disruptions brought by COVID-19. The teams were to play only two rounds of qualification games to reach the spectacle. The team started brightly with a 5-1 win away to Angola before wrapping up the two-legged encounter 2-0 on home soil last October. Standing between the Mares and a historic berth were neighbours, Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors.
Ronaldo’s troops were in a menacing mood away from home on February 23 as they beat the Mighty Warriors 3-1. However, on home soil, the team had to hold on nervously until the last minute as they booked their AWCON spot despite losing 2-0 at the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium. Ronaldo secured a continental berth 10 years after the men’s team the Zebras achieved the feat. Speaking to Mmegi Sport, she said she copied notes from Zebras’ legendary coach, Stan Tshosane’s manual book. “As a coach, you have to make changes when things do not work out.
I said we do not have gifted footballers here. We do not have a number of players who are comfortable on the ball; we do not have ballplayers. The other thing was that most of the time we were playing teams superior to us. That did not allow us to try to play, because we cannot match teams that are better on the ball than us. So we decided to focus on the defensive aspect and try to catch our opponents on the break and I think it has worked well for us.” “This is a team that has been on a transition over the past few years.
There have been additions and of course subtractions along the way. The other thing is that we are now better resourced as the technical team. We are now availed the videos for analysis and that I must say it has helped our cause,” Ronaldo said. Nkutlwisang will be in the AWCON finals this July as the longest-serving coach with 13 years at the helm. She is not on a permanent contract with the Botswana Football Association and works as a refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanic.