Under 20 Coach Moses Maliehe
Mikia Kalati
LIKUENA coach Moses Maliehe bemoaned a lapse of concentration in optional time which led to Likuena’s 0-1 loss to Mozambique in an international friendly in Maputo on Tuesday night.
This was Likuena’s first match since losing 0-6 to Algeria in September 2016 and Maliehe has had to reshuffle the team after several players took a break from national duty.
Speaking with the Lesotho Times after the game, Maliehe however, expressed satisfaction with his charges performance despite a late goal by Antonio Dayo which handed Mozambique a hard fought victory.
Maliehe handed a debut to LDF goalkeeper, Likano Mphuthi ahead of Daniel Jouse who had been the first choice since the former Matlama mentor took over the reins.
The LDF short stopper made good use of the opportunity by saving a penalty late in the match.
He was later substituted due to health reasons and Likuena conceded shortly afterwards.
According to Maliehe, Mphuthi experienced an epileptic seizure which led to his substitution.
“I’m very proud of the boys despite losing the match to Mozambique,” Maliehe said.
“We gave our best against a very good Mozambican side that had all their players based in Europe and outside the country including South Africa.”
He said the match gave him a chance to assess weaknesses and strengthens ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and 2018 Africa Nations Championship that get underway in June and July respectively.
“I’m happy with what I saw from the team and the game gave us a chance to see what we need to work on going forward.
“We missed a lot of good chances and also had a lapse in concentration towards the end of the match to concede a goal.
“Overall, there were a lot of positives. We had to take off our goalkeeper Mphuthi who had a good debut saving a penalty as he regularly suffers from epilepsy.”
He said the substitution worked in the Mozambicans’ favour, “but I’m very satisfied with the effort that the team gave playing against seasoned campaigners such as Elias Pelembe,” Maliehe said.
