MASERU — Makoanyane XI were yesterday clobbered 2-0 by Angola at the Zone VI Youth Games in Swaziland.
The Under-20s – missing some key players – had started the tournament on a bright note by beating Mozambique 2-1 on Tuesday.
Today Leslie Notsi’s charges will face regional powerhouse Zambia in a do-or-die clash that will determine their fate in the tournament.
Yesterday’s result was a fresh blow for Makoanyane XI who crashed out at the group stage of the Cosafa Under-20 Youth Championship in Botswana last week.
Lesotho have been under the spotlight since they qualified for next year’s African Under-20 Youth Championship to be hosted by Libya.
Makoanyane XI were expected to be among the top teams in Swaziland but the hammering at the hands of Angola could start worrying Basotho ahead of the Libya safari.
Besides football, other disciplines in which Lesotho is participating at the Zone VI Youth Games are athletics, boxing, lawn tennis and swimming.
It was difficult to establish how Team Lesotho was faring in those other disciplines.
Head of delegation Moipone Mashala, when contacted by telephone, told the Lesotho Times she could only have the results by this morning.
“I do not have the results of all the sporting codes representing the country because I will only be meeting team managers after 8:30 pm,” she said from Swaziland yesterday.
“Most of our sporting codes representing the country are still competing as we speak and it is not easy for me to tell the overall performance of the team because these games are continuous.”
Team Lesotho almost missed the sporting gala because the government had failed to release money for the trip in time.
The ill-prepared athletes only left for Swaziland on Saturday, a day after the games had started. The games end on Monday.
Meanwhile, national champions Redskins have been raising the country’s flag high at the Zone VI volleyball tournament in Gaborone, Botswana.
The tournament started on Monday with Redskins beating Botswana Defence Force 3-2 before dismissing Zimbabwe’s Hawks 3-1 on Tuesday.
However, LDF and LMPS — the other male teams representing Lesotho — found the going hard at the regional meet.
LMPS lost 3-1 to Botswana’s Nomahasha on Monday, while LDF were beaten 3-0 by Kutloano, another home team.
The only female team representing Lesotho, Redskins, were thrashed 3-0 by Kutloano.
