Moorosi Tsiane
MEHALALITOE coach Monaheng Montšo says his side has shifted its focus on the upcoming COSAFA Cup to be hosted in Durban, in South Africa in August this year.
The team lost by a 7-0 aggregate to South Africa and stormed out of the Women’s AFCON qualifiers in matches in Maseru and in Bloemfontein. After being edged 0-1 at home in a mid-week fixture, they went on to succumb to a 6-0 drubbing away to the neighbours last Sunday.
Montšo said the loss to the powerhouses, South Africa was a learning curve for the team and said he is hopeful that the exposure will help his charges going forward.
“It is painful to lose by such a margin but that is now water under the bridge and it was a learning curve for the players,” Montšo said.
“South African soccer is more developed than ours and they have a more competitive women’s football league and they were always going to be tough opponents. However, I am proud of my charges.
“Now we have shifted our focus to the upcoming COSAFA Cup tournament which is going to be played in August 2018.”
He said the biggest attribute for the loss to the Banyana Banyana was lack of physical fitness which resulted in many players suffering injures.
“In the two matches against South Africa we learnt how crucial it is for players to be physically fit. We lost the second leg by 6-0 because our level of fitness was poor compared to that of our opponents.
“From the matches, we have noted the areas that we need to work on including the psychological state of the team,” he said.
Montšo said he would engage the Lesotho Football Association to ensure that the squad is kept intact so that they can work on their progress.
“I would like to keep the team training together. If they go out of camp now then it means when they come back we will be starting from scratch when preparations for COSAFA start. We always have inadequate time and I hope LeFA will grant us the request when they meet.
“The other challenge is that some of our players are not all always available due to school and work commitments and we would want that to be resolved,” said Montšo.
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