SA experts recommend overhaul of technical set-up
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Tuesday June 23, 2015 14:06
The South African Football Coaches Association (SAFCA) produced the report, after the Botswana Premier League (BPL) had approached the neighbouring country for assistance in technical development.
Last season, SAFCA dispatched a three-man team of football professionals under the authority of Professor Ted Dumitru, who has led South African giants, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns winning league titles.
The team came to Botswana last season to conduct a research where four matches were observed and analysed. They watched Township Rollers take on ECCO City Greens at the National Stadium, and also watched BMC and Mochudi Centre Chiefs, Notwane versus Nico United and Notwane against Letlapeng games.
Dumitru and his team have since observed that the standard of play in matches was good, but there was room for improvement.
They saw impressive skills and management, especially with consideration that most of the BPL teams do not have proper training facilities.
“It is a big challenge and coaches must be commended for doing their best under the circumstances. Players must also be commended for making efforts to adjust from training to playing different surfaces,” the team observed.
They also noted that the standard of play in the three televised matches was different from the one match that was not televised.
They said that in the match that was not televised, there was complete dominance of long passes by both teams, which is a contrasting style to their natural attributes. In the televised matches, they observed that teams were playing to both entertain fans and win.
“We observed problematic areas during warm ups in terms of the timing and the drills. The one team with better drills had the sequence wrong. The goalkeeper warm ups were problematic as well and they resulted in fundamental costly mistakes during the matches,” they added.
They observed that the use of different brands of soccer balls at training, during warm ups and matches was also problematic.
They also said the match countdown was not strictly adhered to in terms of the allotted times for warm up which impacts on the players’ readiness for the match.
The team has since concluded that it is necessary and imminent to overhaul the current technical set up, playing mentality and coaching content in Botswana.
BPL chief executive officer, Bennett Mamelodi said there is a proposal for the team to conduct a coaching symposium pre-season, for BPL coaches and team leaders.
The idea, he noted, is for Dumitru and his team to sell their tried and tested methodology and experiences, as contained in the same document.