05 Mar 2025

Botswana national under-17 women’s team is in camp preparing for their 2025 U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifier clash against Algeria to be played at Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown on Saturday.

Should they beat Algeria home and away, they will then have a date with a winner between Nigeria and South Africa. The team coach, Bonang ‘Bebeto’ Mosetha said they were preparing well for Algeria, adding that when they started, the players performance was not upto scratch, owing to the fact that they once took a break due to recent torrential rains.

She said thereafter, they had to concentrate on their fitness level. She expressed happiness that they responded well and their fitness level was now better. Mosetha said although Algerians were a closed book to them, they managed to watch and analysed some of their videos.

“We realised that they employ high press tactic and very quick on the ball as compared to our players. So we have been trying everything possible to improve our girls technique,” she said.

Furthermore, she said she got assistance from experienced coaches in the likes of Zebras coach, Morena Ramoreboli during their preparations. She said the session with Ramoreboli was meant to help the players enhance how to defend the corner kicks, adding that this was after realising that Arabians were very good in executing the corner kicks.

Mosetha said Algeria was very quick, and they attacked as a unit, adding that Ramoreboli had an opportunity to watch the video and after that, they came up with a session specifically to deal with that area. She said in another session, they invited Odirile ‘China’ Matlhaku to deal with the defence department to avoid penetration passes, adding that there was a lot of improvement after engaging them.

The coach said she was happy that the team’s morale was very high, adding that her job was made easy by the fact that she coached a lot of them at the Under-15 level, and they understood each other better. ENDS