{"id":16317,"date":"2022-11-07T10:46:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T10:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start"},"modified":"2022-11-07T17:30:41","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T17:30:41","slug":"motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start","title":{"rendered":"Motang, Rollers off to a good start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Township Rollers started their 2022\/23 Premier League season campaign with a 2 \u2013 0 win over Mogoditshane Fighters this past Sunday afternoon.<\/b><\/p>\n

It was also coach Thabo \u2018Mahala\u2019 Motang\u2019s first stint as the team\u2019s fulltime coach, having taken over the reigns following the departure of Romain Folz. While Motang\u2019s Rollers pocketed all the points and kept a clean sheet, it is apparent the team still has a lot of work to do to win over skeptics.<\/p>\n

Against a hapless Fighters who had not trained well due to internal problems, Rollers failed to convince. Despite some neat passing and dominating the game, Popa found it difficult to break a stubborn Fighters who had set out to defend.<\/p>\n

All this was despite Rollers boasting of the creative talents of Mogakolodi Ngele and Segolame Boy. While the pair did not light the field as could have been expected, perhaps due to this being their first game of the season, they however showed some glimpses of their potential combination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe league is a marathon. We have a new coach in Motang as he previously served as an assistant coach and goalkeeper coach. He has come with a new playing system and we are still trying to get used to it. I believe it is still early in the season and as a team we will adjust,\u201d Ngele said.<\/p>\n

Rollers\u2019 early struggles to score in open play were apparent as both of the team\u2019s goals came through set pieces. Rollers\u2019 first goal came six minutes from recess when towering defender Simisani Mathumo powered a header into the net from a well taken Ngele set piece. Their second goal would come deep in the second half when Phenyo Serameng tapped in another of Ngele\u2019s trademark set pieces.<\/p>\n

For Motang, the two goals and a clean sheet were important as the team started the league season on a positive note. \u201cWe managed to get goals. We managed to defend, which is what is needed in football. I am impressed,\u201d Motang said in a post-match interview.<\/p>\n

The Rollers gaffer said looking at how Fighters set out to play, which was to sit in front of goal and deny Rollers chances at goal, his charges did well. \u201cIf you look at Fighters, they did not give us a chance to penetrate. They allowed us to play, but they stood in front of goal where it matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

To their credit, Rollers were patient and when opportunity availed itself in the form of set pieces, they capitalized to get a crucial win. \u201cI am happy that at least we managed to get those two goals and three points,\u201d Motang said.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, Fighters\u2019 losing coach Nelson Olebile expressed satisfaction with how his team fared against Rollers. Ahead of the game, Fighters had gone about seven days without training due to off the pitch problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at where we are coming from, for these boys to come here and give me this performance, I am very happy with how they performed,\u201d Olebile said. For the coach, even more impressive was the fact that his charges played according to plan.<\/p>\n

For the Fighters gaffer, the plan was to \u2018close at the back\u2019 and not give Rollers a chance at goal. \u201cWe knew we had to be compact on our last third and deny them those half spaces that they might try to create, which I think my boys did very well,\u201d he observed. Olebile said given that his team only lost on set play to a team of the calibre of Rollers, he was impressed. He said they will take the loss as a lesson which they will use in their upcoming games.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Township Rollers started their 2022\/23 Premier League season campaign with a 2 \u2013 0 win over Mogoditshane Fighters this past Sunday afternoon. It was also coach Thabo \u2018Mahala\u2019 Motang\u2019s first stint as the team\u2019s fulltime coach, having taken over the reigns following the departure of Romain Folz. While Motang\u2019s Rollers pocketed all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-16317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nMotang, Rollers off to a good start - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Township Rollers started their 2022\/23 Premier League season campaign with a 2 \u2013 0 win over Mogoditshane Fighters thi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Motang, Rollers off to a good start\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Township Rollers started their 2022\/23 Premier League season campaign with a 2 \u2013 0 win over Mogoditshane Fighters thi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-07T10:46:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-07T17:30:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636940aac86b5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"477\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Motang, Rollers off to a good start\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-07T10:46:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-07T17:30:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start\"},\"wordCount\":636,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636940aac86b5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/motang-rollers-off-to-a-good-start\",\"name\":\"Motang, Rollers off to a good start - 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