Moorosi Tsiane

THE Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) recently announced that the senior national soccer team assistant coach Mpitsa Marai will take charge of the Likuena squad that will play South Africa in the African Nations Champions (CHAN) qualifiers in July and August this year.

Marai has been working as national team coach Moses Maliehe’s second in command since 2016. In a recent interview with our sister paper the Lesotho Times last week, LeFA public relations officer Thabo Maretlane said Marai’s appointment to lead the national team for the CHAN competition is meant to widen the pool of top coaches in the country.

Likuena will host the first leg between 26 and 28 July while the second leg will be played in South Africa between 2 and 4 August.

Marai is expected to announce a relatively new squad from the current team to afford other players international exposure.

For a long time, I have always been saying that our players are really struggling to attract foreign leagues and that affects Likuena’s performance at regional and continental competitions due to the players’ lack of experience and I am happy that at least, LeFA has this time finally headed the calls and given Marai a chance to lead this new team.

There is no doubt, this is going to be one of the hardest tests for Marai, especially due to the calibre of the team he will be facing.

We appreciate that when it comes to football development, South Africa is way ahead of Lesotho and playing them; let alone to beat them will always be a challenge.

This tournament is played by players who ply their trade in domestic leagues only and it could have been an advantage for us to go with the same squad that will be facing Cape Verde later this month in the AFCON qualifiers because the core of that team plays here at home except Lesia Thetsane (United States based), Tumelo Khutlang, Tshwarelo Bereng, Jane Tšotleho and Nkoto Masoabi (all South Africa based).

But because it is time LeFA creates a bigger pool of players with international exposure, Marai has been directed to assemble an entirely new team and I fully back this decision. This is because the same players who are in the national team have been in almost every qualifier but always come back with the same results and I hope things will be different this time as they take on Cape Verde and make history of being the first group to ever take us to the AFCON finals.

The other sad truth that we can’t shy away from is that some of these players in the current team are off form but because we lack players with the needed exposure, the same players still find themselves in the team.

I applaud LeFA for this move and I hope Marai will get all the support he needs to prepare the team for this Bafana Bafana tie and even if he loses, I hope the team is kept intact.