MASERU — Lesotho’s national women football team will square off against Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors in the opening match of the Cosafa Games in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Saturday.
Mehalalitoe are in Group A together with hosts Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
The other teams in Group B are defending champions South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Botswana.
The Cosafa Games will run from July 2 -9.
Speaking at the send-off ceremony yesterday, Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) technical director Seephephe ‘Mochini’ Matete said this was a developing team and results were not of major concern.
“The coach has been with the players since last year and during the holidays but we are not excepting results now because it is a developing team,” Matete said.
He said the main issue is to ensure that the team is given the right materials to develop into a future winning team as most of the players are Under-20’s.
The only predicament is lack of international friendly matches ahead of these games.
“We received the invitation from Cosafa very late and did not have the time to organise any international friendly matches,” Matete said.
Team manager Maleshoane Mokhathi told the Lesotho Times that their mission was to restore Lesotho’s pride internationally.
“Yes we want to restore the country’s pride but at the moment we want to build a team that will restore the country’s pride “tomorrow”.
“When we started with the U-20 and U-15 training camp in December, we were laying a foundation to restore national pride,” Mokhathi said.
Mokhathi however said these were the most difficult games Mehalalitoe has ever faced because they did not know their opponents.
“It will be the battle of the unknown,” she said.
“It was a bit of a challenge to prepare as the Women’s Cosafa Games are hardly televised except only in the host country.
“The coaches have therefore made it a point not to have special preparations but prepare the team thoroughly for all games,” she added.
