Moorosi Tsiane
THE Likuena technical team has been extremely cautious not to stretch the players in the senior national soccer team’s preparations for the trip to Sierra Leone for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier next Wednesday.
The side will return to host the Super Eagles of Nigeria at Setsoto Stadium four days later.
Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) information officer Mikia Kalati yesterday told the Lesotho Times that the technical team has been very cautious in its preparations.
Kalati said in preparation for the two matches, the side travelled to Johannesburg yesterday and played GladAfrica Championship side and Nedbank Cup champions, TS Galaxy.
He however, said while they were hard at work, the coaches have been cautious not to stretch the players in the knowledge that most of them have had busy schedules in the last two weeks. He said the technical team is doing all they can to ensure that they give the players time to recover.
“As part of the preparations, the team played a friendly against TS Galaxy today (yesterday) and they will probably be back in the country tomorrow (today) morning,” Kalati said.
“On arrival they will rest and are expected to leave the country on Saturday.
“The technical team has tried to work on the players’ recovery. The last two weeks have been busy and some players showed signs of fatigue. So, the programme has been more about recovery this week. They also had a swimming pool session on Monday when they got into camp.”
Kalati said Likuena coach Thabo Senong was impressed with Bloemfontein Celtic striker Motebang Sera, who has scored twice in consecutive in recent matches against SuperSport United and Highlands Park.
He added that the trio of Sera, Tumelo Khutlang and Tshwarelo Bereng (both Black Leopards) would join the rest of the team at the airport on Sunday en route to Free Town, Sierra Leone.
“The team leaves the country on Saturday, sleep in Johannesburg and fly out to Free Town on Sunday. The trio of Sera, Bereng and Khutlang will join the rest of the team at the airport as their teams have weekend fixtures. They would have wanted to leave earlier but they couldn’t as they had to wait for the three players.
“The coach is happy that both Sera and Bereng have been getting some game time at their respective clubs. Sera has also been scoring and that will boost their confidence going into the upcoming matches. He had also requested that Khutlang be released in time from their club but the Leopards coach said there were certain things he was assessing on him hopefully, he will also start playing for his team,” Kalati said.
Motlomelo Mkhwanazi and Nkoto Masoabi who play for Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila and Royal Kings joined the team on Monday.
Kalati also said Matlama defender John Mohai has been dropped from the team due to an injury and has been replaced by Liphakoe’s Thabo Matšoele.
