Moorosi Tsiane
International football matches can be so exhilarating particularly when there are tournaments such as the COPA America currently underway in Chile, but I have since learnt that this is not the case when our senior team, Likuena, are involved.
In fact, I have come to loathe it when Likuena are playing any sort of qualifier, be it for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), World Cup or today’s African Nations Championship (CHAN) tie against the Zebras of Botswana.
It’s not that I think less of international fixtures, which I must say can be pretty dull sometimes when big teams are playing really small ones. I resent them because I am a proud Mosotho who feels humiliated when Likuena are either being thrashed or are simply not there at these big tournaments.
It is a fact that Likuena have never qualified for AFCON, let alone the World Cup, and only play at the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) competition where nations don’t have to qualify but simply be part of this group of 14 countries.
And even in this free-for-all event, we have not done that well, save for reaching the final and then losing the match 6-0 against Zimbabwe in 2000, and again being beaten by the same nation 2-1 in the semifinal in 2013.
For the 2015 AFCON qualifiers, we were so close to creating history after beating Kenya and Liberia, thereby making it to the group stage of the biennial tournament where we faced Angola, Gabon and Burkina Faso. Perhaps the reason why we couldn’t make it to the tournament was players’ disaffection following yet another run-in with the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA).
Last weekend, Likuena started their 2017 AFCON campaign on the wrong foot, losing 2-1 to Ethiopia in the city of Bahir Dar.
With heavyweights Algeria and the Seychelles also in the same group as Lesotho, it goes without saying that our boys have their work cut-out to win this pool and qualify for the tournament come 2017.
As for today, Likuena face their bogey team, which they have always struggled to beat. After the promise of AFCON 2015, I was full of hope that the only way we could go as a football nation was forward, yet the opposite has proved to be true.
It is not easy to forget last month’s 2-1 defeat to Madagascar and 2-0 humiliation by Swaziland in the COSAFA group-stage matches, which resulted in Lesotho crashing out of the event in the first round.
It’s as if Lesotho is cursed when it comes to football and while the local league brings joy to thousands of fans each year, the moment we leave our borders, that joy becomes disappointment.
Last weekend was even more painful for me because a country I consider worse than us, Swaziland, kick-started their AFCON campaign with a shock 2-1 win against Guinea and now top Group L that also consists of Zimbabwe and Malawi.
If I sound jealous, it is because I am! I am green with envy, if you could forgive the cliché, because it appears we are the only nation in the region whose football is regressing instead of moving forward.
One of the reasons why the national team is so weak is because of our league, which is so embarrassingly amateur, leaving the coach with a very thin selection base.
Until the premiership is strengthened with sound sponsorship, we will continue to struggle on the international stage.