Mikia Kalati
RUSTENBURG-Veteran South African journalist, Mark Gleeson, feels Lesotho’s football standards have deteriorated following the national team’s 2-1 loss to minnows Madagascar on Monday.
Lesotho had been favourites to win the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) opener at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg, South Africa, but let their 1-0 lead slip and eventually lost the tie.
According to Gleeson, he had expected Likuena to do better following their semi-final loss in the 2013 edition of the competition, which was however, not the case.
“I was expecting to see an improved performance from Lesotho as they did well in 2013. It was really shocking to see them losing to Madagascar in this fashion,” Gleeson said.
“Look, I also watched Likuena during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and I had seen a lot of improvement in the team. But I really don’t know what has gone wrong now because this is not what I expected from them.”
Gleeson further advised Lesotho to put more emphasis on developing young talent, which he pointed out was the only way to arrest the slide in standards.
Asked why he believed Lesotho players struggle to find clubs in South Africa, which is not the case with other regional players, Gleeson said: “ I saw a few guys with potential, but unfortunately, teams are looking for outstanding individuals not just ordinary players.
“There is too much competition to win contracts with teams here in South Africa, and for a player to catch the attention of scouts, he must be outstanding.
“All in all, I think there is a lot of work to be done by Lesotho as a country to compete with the rest of the region and also produce quality players such as Zimbabwe.
“That’s why you see clubs here are looking at countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia because of the quality they have managed to produce over the years.”
