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Sept. 13, 2018

By Tšeliso Tale

3 min read

Mehalalitoe left for COSAFA Games

Mehalalitoe left for COSAFA Games

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MASERU (TMGLIVE) -Lesotho National Senior Women’s Football Squad (Mehalalitoe) left the country on Monday this week for Confederations of Southern African Football Association (COSAFA) Women’s Senior Tournament.

The tourney will be played at Nelson Mandela Bay Port Elizabeth (PE) in South Africa and Mehalalitoe left Maseru at 05hrs00 and arrived at PE there same day 18:30. Mehalalitoe is in the same group with Zambia, Cameroon and Mozambique, which is one of the most difficult groups they have ever played. Lesotho will play their first match against Zambia today and the match will begin at 15hrs30 in group B at Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth. This will be the second match of the group and the 6th of the 2018 Women’s Senior COSAFA tourney.

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The second match will be against Cameroon on the 18th September 2018 and it will be the last match of the group and the group stages. The winner of group will face the Best losers in all the groups in the first semi finals at 13hrs on the 20th September 2018 and that will be followed by the winner of group A and the winner of group C in semi final two.

The Squad Coach Monaheng Montso and his technical team announced the final list for Mehalalitoe since they began with the team preparations. Mohalalitoe have been together for more than two months, but it is not going to be easy looking at the other countries players’ structure and those of Mehalalitoe.

Mehalalitoe is made of the following players: Goalkeepers are: Thuto Maifo, Boitumelo Nkeane and Mosilinyane Lefaphane. Defenders are: ‘Mamoroesi Likotsi, Mosili Motšoeneng, Montšeng Matete, Tšoanelo Leboka, ‘Maqabane Mokhothu and ‘Mafusi Phesolo. Middle fielders: Ntsabeng Pelea, Palesa Mpeta, Mating Monokoane, Makobo Kepa, Bokang Matabane and Kefuoe Makoa. Strikers are: Phuzile Molefe, Moselo Pita, Litšoanelo Maloro and Relebohile Akhente.

The team will be without captain Boitumelo ‘Queen’ Rabale and the former Bloemfontein Celtic captain Senate Letsie who are both in Europe on the football project and schooling. The two players could not be available to join the squad because COSAFA Game tournament is not on FIFA Calendar.

Monaheng Montso Mehalalitoe head coach said, ‘We are well prepared to face any challenges, we have strong teams in our group and we are lucky to have arrived late here in PE because we are able to see this countries players. We have to avoid contact and making fouls around the box also to give away conner kicks. We need to apply more speed when we attack as well as defending as a team and avoid playing high balls.’

‘We will have time to discuss them and they are playing first so we will be able to see how they play, talking about the absence of our two players who are now in Europe, Senate Letsie and Boitumelo ‘Queen’ Rabele. We knew long time ago that, they won’t be here and we have a plan to play without them, we must take this challenge as part of learning because we can’t buy experience. We will meet them in the FIFA calendar one day and we will know how to approach them. We are not under pressure at all.’

‘I would like to thank Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) for their support and for giving these girls the opportunity to play against these countries at this stage.’ We are also happy to have players playing in Europe; they will bring deference and knowledge in our team in future.’

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