Africa-Press – Botswana. Having lost two games by 1-0 to both Algeria, and Nigeria, The Mares redeemed themselves by beating Tunisia 2-1 in a TotalEnergies WAFCON game played at Rere Jego Stadium on Sunday.
The Women senior national football team concluded the group stage finished in third position ahead of Tunisia.
The two goals which came through Lesego Radiakanyo and Gaonyadiwe Ontlametse were the only goals that Botswana registered in the group stages.
Head coach Alex Malete said in an interview that he was happy that from the first match to the last one, he had witnessed growth from his team.
“From the first half against Algeria we were not good, but in the second half we improved, and when we played Nigeria, we were even better,” he said.
Malete said on Sunday, after a setback of conceding in the 12th minute, his team still kept the belief, given that they came back a better team in the second half.
He said that alone was a display, as to what a resilience and believe was all about, adding that also demonstrated the capabilities of the Mares.
“I also want to give credit to the technical team. We have played very demanding matches, but they have done a good job in terms of recovery, monitoring nutrition’s and the players sleeping patterns, and also the analysis team has done a brilliant job,” he said.
Furthermore, he said in their game between Tunisia, the goal that was ruled offside, was created in the same manner with the goal that won the match.
“But all in all I am happy with the commitment of the players, it shows that we share a common goal and it make it easier to work as a team,” he said.
Talking about the growth of women’s football, after the group stages matches, Malete said he had observed countries were doing well.
“Tunisia is ranked 89th in the world and we are number 153 and you could not tell the difference. When we played against Nigeria the difference was not that much, same thing with Algeria,” he said.
Malete said Banyana Banyana’s one all draw against Tanzania was an indications that teams were evolving.
“I think, in near future, not far from today, African teams will start to dominate at the world stage, because the advantage that we have as Africans is the physicality that we bring to the game,” he said.
He said the European and Americans were only a little bit ahead, when it comes to technical and tactical part of the match, but when it come to the physicality Africa was ahead.
“If you profile African teams, the teams that are dominating, such as Nigeria and Zambia, how they are able to dominate and the intensity that they are able to sustain throughout, I think the gap is reducing,” he said.
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