Mikia Kalati
By Monday this week, the national football team, Likuena, were yet to troop into camp ahead of Saturday’s opening 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) group stage qualifier against Burkina Faso.
This will surely be worrying for coach Seephephe ‘Mochini’ Matete, as his charges would be playing such an important game without proper preparations.
Like I have previously said, it is really a shame that a team which has done us so proud, will be forced to play under such shambolic arrangements because of poor planning by our sports ministry and the Lesotho Football Association (Lefa).
This dire situation now requires our boys to show their character against a very tough Burkinabé side that has also shown a lot of improvement in recent years.
Burkina Faso were runners-up to Nigeria in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournament and this shows they are a very strong football side, which should be taken very seriously.
Most of the Burkina Faso players ply their trade outside Africa, top among them United Arab Emirates-based Jonathan Pitroipa, who was chosen Player of the Tournament at Afcon 2013. Another dangerous Burkinabé isAristide Bancé, who plays for German side Augsburg.
However, despite this formidable opposition, I have confidence in our boys as they showed in their last match against Kenya that off-field problems cannot affect their performance.
Likuena went on strike prior to their trip to the East African country following a bonus row with Lefa, but still managed to qualify for the group stage at the expense of a very good Harambee Stars team.
This showed a lot of maturity from our players and we are all hoping that they can do it again against Burkina Faso.
Surely this will be even tougher because after playing Burkina Faso, Likuena have to return home as soon as possible as they host Gabon at Setsoto stadium four days later.
I therefore call on our beloved Likuena to ignore these many administrative bungles, which now include the political turmoil in our country, that also affected Premier League games this past weekend as one of them had to be called off.
However, it is not all doom and gloom for the national side as most of the players have been in action for their teams since the league started a fortnight ago.
Another positive from this is that most of the players in the squad are very experienced and it will not be the first time that they play under such very poor conditions.
These players have given it their best to reach this last stage of the qualifiers and I hope, for the sake of national pride, they will continue to do the country proud despite these painful circumstances.
It will surely be a difficult task, but I’m confident that experienced players such as Moitheri Ntobo, Bushy Moletsane, Ralekoti Mokhahlane and Mohau Kuenane will, once again, lead by example because it is their dream to play in the continental competition before they call time on their football careers.
