Africa-Press – Lesotho. The national women’s team head coach, Pule Khojane, has put Mehalalitoe’s dismal showing at the 2023 COSAFA Women’s Cup down to preparation. Khojane was speaking to reporters at a press conference after Mehalalitoe suffered a 2-0 loss to Namibia yesterday at the UJ Soweto Stadium, Lesotho’s third defeat in the tournament against Namibia.
Although there was improvement in certain areas from Lesotho’s previous game, a 3-0 loss to Botswana, Mehalalitoe were visibly lacking in terms of matching their opponents’ fitness levels and defensive errors cost them the game.
Khojane said it’s unfortunate Lesotho did not score, however, the performance was at least 80 percent of what he wanted. He said this year’s tournament has been a learning curve.
Mehalalitoe exit the tournament with zero points and have not been able to score even a single goal and, in comparison, the team has taken a step back from last year’s performance in Port Elizabeth.
“All in all my girls played well, the performance was at least 80 percent of what I wanted, it was a learning curve for us. We know why we didn’t perform well at this tournament,” Khojane said.
“We know why the results are like this even if I can’t say it now but we will go back to the drawing board, re-plan and do things again,” he added.
Khojane said one of the most important things is to play friendly matches and playing more friendly games will put Mehalalitoe on the same level as other teams.
He also admitted they left Port Elizabeth last year thinking they will come back a better team but the preparation was not as good as they would have liked it to be.
“I think the most important thing is preparation, all these teams that we have played against have been preparing very well, they are playing in the CAF Champions League, Olympic qualifiers, it’s only us who aren’t playing those kinds of games and that is why the performance is like this,” he said.
“For us these games were like preparation, for them they came here to prepare for something else, but going back home we know what to do, if we come back next year we will come back a better team,” he said.
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