Zebras to meet Swaziland in Pretoria
by Thomas Kwenaite 25 July 2011, 12:22
Botswana national coach Stanley Tshosane is knocking the Zebras into shape at the Sports Science Institute in Pretoria. The team arrived at the home of Pretoria Tuks last Thursday and the national coach has expressed his satisfaction about their stay so far.
Sadly, their proposed training international friendly game against Lesotho scheduled for Sunday has fallen off, but that has not deterred the Batswana from pursuing their goals.
“Lesotho informed us they could no longer honour our proposed friendly match,” said Tshosane from Pretoria on Monday. “But we have already engaged Swaziland and they have tentatively agreed to honour the match.”
Botswana became the first country to qualify for the biennial African Nations Cup tournament scheduled for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in 2012 in a group that also included former World Cup finalists Tunisia and Togo.
The unbeaten southern African country has been the surprised package of next year’s qualifiers and Tshosane’s “Mighty Zebras” kept their nerve to beat Tunisia both in Tunis and in Gaborone to amass an incredible 17 points to top their group with a game to spare.
Now the team is preparing for their first ever appearance at the biennial showpiece and the Botswana FA has arranged a series of training camps to allow Tshosane to knock his troops into shape.
“There is a proposed trip to Brazil sometimes in December,” revealed Tshosane. “But nothing has been finalized yet but at the moment we are concentrating on working hard here in Pretoria.
“We have been well received and everything that is needed by a team has been provided by the people at the High Performance Centre. The boys are quite happy and satisfied about the superior facilities that have been laid out for them.”
Tshosane has been forced to make do without most of his foreign-based stars like Dipsey Selolwane and Mogogi Gabonamong (SuperSport United); Phenyo Mongala (Orlando Pirates); Dirang Moloi and Modiri Marumo (Bay United) who could not be released by their South African clubs for the training camp.
And on Monday, his only foreign-based player – Jerome “Jay-Jay” Ramatlhakwana – who was on loan to Vasco da Gama from Santos was forced to travel to Cape Town to attend to some personal business.
Tshosane said they have engaged some psychologists as well as biokinetics to attend to his squad that is looking towards making an impression on their first ever appearance at the continental showpiece next January.