National womens football team assistant coach Johannes Chikaola has vowed to heap more woes on a Botswana squad who are seemingly suffering from rejection by the locals, when the two teams clash in the Caf African Womens Championship first leg qualifier at the UB Stadium in Gaborone tomorrow. The match kicks off at 4pm.
The locals are preoccupied with the euphoria of their senior mens football teams maiden appearance in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), and the women national football team has clearly lost relevance in all this excitement.
The extent of the locals lack of interest in tomorrows match which involves one of their national senior teams is not only shocking, but appalling.
When the Mighty Warriors team arrived at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, one of the locals posed this question to one of the members in the Zimbabwean delegation, Why are you here . . . are you guys in transit or something?
The local media have also aided in that apathy as they have completely imposed a black-out on the Saturday match giving acresof space to the mens team who left for Cameroon to prepare for the Afcon, and were accorded a rapturous send-off at the airport.
Chikaola said they would not feel pity for their counterparts.
We will not concentrate much on what is happening here. We are here to do business. We want to finish the job here and just do a wrap-up when they come to Zimbabwe for the return leg.
We are not underrating them though, we are taking this match seriously and will treat them the same way we treat teams like South Africa, said Chikaola.
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The Mighty Warriors held their first training session with a morning work-out at the Maru-A-Pula School, a stones throw away from the match venue.
Chikaola said the searing temperature which averages 38 degrees Celsius is a major concern for his team.
We had the same temperatures in Mozambique during the All-Africa Games and the girls struggled. We have three days to acclimatise and we have emphasised that they should drink a lot of water. However, the mood is good in camp. Everybody is happy.
A comfortable win for the Mighty Warriors will probably wrap up advancement to the first and final round stage of the qualifiers where continental powerhouse Nigeria lies in wait.
