Ronaldo’s plan for Morocco onslaught
Kabelo Boranabi | Saturday April 2, 2022 09:09
The Mares regrouped on Monday for the first time since securing a berth at the AWCON finals as Nkutlwisang has involved locally-based players only. The team has no less than 10 new faces in the 31-member squad for the two-week-long training camp at the Lekidi Football Centre.
"I have called a few more players to create competition, no one should be comfortable. We all need to work hard to be ready for AWCON. We need all players to know the philosophy and what we expect of them hence why we will have three to six players per position. AWCON is not far so we also need to closely observe our fitness. We ask Batswana to support the team and let us work for now and ensure we have a team ready for July,” Nkutlwisang said as quoted by Botswana Football Association (BFA) social media platforms. Speaking to Mmegi Sport the coach said she is impressed by the commitment shown by her players in the few days in camp.
The camp, according to Nkutlwisang, is the first of four before the team leaves for Morocco in July as she announced her technical preparations plan ahead of the AWCON. “The technical team has already given the BFA our plan. We intend to have two two-week camps and at least a one-week camp before the final camp. We have also advised on the number of friendly games we need to play. It would be a plus for us to play some competitive friendly matches. We have proposed a camp at the High Performance Centre (Pretoria, South Africa). I guess by then we will have an opportunity to play friendly games,” Nkutlwisang said.
The Mares will enter the competition with the fewest foreign-based contingent in the 12 teams that qualified for the tournament as only five players are plying their trade outside the country’s shores. However, Gaolethoo has said the facts do not matter, as she believes a fully fit Mares team can compete against any opponent.
“It can work in our favour and it cannot. The thing is we need to know our (group stage) opponents first. Then we will work around that, to analyse their movements, style of play and so forth. It doesn’t matter if the players are based locally or abroad. The only thing that matters is to keep our players' fitness levels up there. Since our first training on Tuesday, I have realised that players have dropped in terms of fitness since our last game. The level of commitment is there, but you could only do better when you are fitter so we need to take the fitness levels up there.”
“One thing I have realised is that league football is more competitive down South than in the North. So you would find out that players from the South are steps ahead of the rest, but what impresses me the most is that everybody is raising their game and showing that they want to be part of the team,” she said.
The Mares will compete at the AWCON finals to be held in Morocco from July 2 to 23 this year. The tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Nkutlwisang and the team will learn their opponents in the group stages after a draw to be held at a date to be announced.