The players start the COSAFA campaign against Mauritius on Saturday and Radipotsane said that his charges are ready to compete. He explained that they started the selection process in August until they had the final team of 20 players. The squad boasts some big names in the Mascom Premier League like Township Rollers' duo of Gabriel Bokhutlo and Edwin Moalosi; ECCO City Greens' strikers, Tebogo Sembowa and Bonolo Fraser; and Uniao Flamengo Santos' exciting winger, Joel Olerile. Sembowa and Bokhutlo have been prominent members of the impressive Under-23 that waged a good fight in the qualifiers for the All Africa Games (AAG) and 2008 Beijing Olympics. After the Mauritius game, the Under-23 side takes on Lesotho on November 3 and then South Africa two days later. All the games start at 6pm.
Meanwhile, the female national football team is busy preparing for the crucial first leg of the sixth African Women Championship qualifiers against Namibia on Friday at the UB Stadium. The second leg of the match will be played in two weeks' time in Namibia and the winner will take on African heavyweights, Nigeria in the next round. Botswana coach, Kagiso Gabasiane said that though they could not have international friendly games to prepare for the campaign, he hopes they will do well. However, he said that people should not put the team at the same level as the Zebras and the Under-23 side as this will be its first competitive international match. The held training camps between October 20 to November 3 and had a break before regrouping again on Sunday. Gabasiane said that they had practice matches against some select teams.
