Poor preparations hamper women�s football
Kabelo Boranabi | Thursday February 4, 2016 14:45
While their male counterparts have been to the finals of a continental competition and managed historic wins along the way, successive women teams have failed to establish themselves.
Respected women’s football coach, Gaolethoo ‘Ronaldo’ Nkutlwisang blamed lack of funds and poor preparations for the lack of progress.
“There is no doubt that we have quality players in the country, but we always prepare late for our games even though we know the standard of our league does not match that of the other countries,” she said. Nkutlwisang, who is the senior national team assistant coach, further said due to a tight budget they cannot have long training camps or play friendly games before international assignments. “At times, we just have to play our games ‘dry’ without having even a single friendly game. We just detect our errors on match day, errors which we could have identified in friendly games,” she said.
‘Ronaldo’ led Township Rollers to an unbeaten league triumph last season, a feat that has never been achieved by any local coach. She said due to lack of sponsorship, players are at times demotivated and therefore do not give their best.
“I would like to plead with the private sector to help women football grow. We have very young players we can invest in. Players need motivation to be at their best. Right now, we are just doing it out of passion,” she said.
The national team coaches are however well qualified for their posts as on average they hold a CAF B licence certificate. The country dropped to its lowest FIFA ranking in September last year.
The women’s national team was ranked number 147, however in December, Botswana moved up seven places to 140. The Under 17 girls were knocked out of the Under 17 World Cup qualifiers by Namibia with a 3-2 aggregate score while the Under 20 side had a disastrous 2015. The team was knocked out of the Under 20 World Cup qualifiers in the preliminary stages with a 9-1 aggregate score.
The team was walloped 8-1 in South Africa, before losing 1-0 at home. The Under 23 was the better team in the past year, as they bowed out of the Olympic qualifier on a 2-2 aggregate score. The team was off to a good start in the first leg, beating Kenya 2-1 at the New Lobatse Stadium before losing by a solitary goal away.
While the senior team managed to reach the second round of the All Africa Games qualifiers, they were knocked out by South Africa 6-0 on aggregate.
Since the country started to participate in international women’s football competitions in 2002, the teams have never qualified for a major competition. Their male counterparts qualified for the 2012 AFCON finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, while the Under 17 side made it to the African Under 17 Championships held in Morocco in 2013.