It is a must win game for us – Botswana coach Tshosane (CAF ONLINE)

06-07-2012

          

   

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Battle lines will be drawn when Botswana take on neighbours South Africa in the first leg match of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in Gaborone this Saturday. On match-day two of the qualifiers both sides could do with maximum points after hosts Botswana lost 2-0 away to Central Africa Republic ( C.A.R) last Saturday while Bafana Bafana were held to a 1-1 draw by Ethiopia at home. Cafonline.com caught up with the Zebras' coach Stanley Tshosane for a chat ahead of the weekend game.

Cafonline.com: How have the preparations for the Bafana game been going thus far?

Tshosane: Everything has been going well since we resumed training on Tuesday. I am glad that we have welcomed back three players who missed the C.A.R game due to injury.

Cafonline.com:  How important is it for you to win against South Africa?

Tshosane:  We need to start collecting points. We started the qualifiers with a loss and this is definitely a must win match for us. We can not afford to play two or three games without a win because that will make things difficult for us.

Cafonline.com: Do you have an idea of the Bafana side you will be facing on Saturday?

Tshosane:  What I can say is that we have done our assignment well leading to this encounter. We are neighbours and it was easy for us to study them well in time.

Cafonline.com:  Bafana Bafana recently parted ways with coach Pitso Mosimane and a new man will be in-charge in Botswana  how does new development impact on your approach?

 Tshosane:  Hardly makes a difference to us ,Not at all. We have a solid plan of how we are going to approach each game of the qualifiers and it will not change. If we read too much into what happened in their camp, it might come back to haunt us because it is a double edged sword. It might work for us or it might not in sense that players and the new coach will be trying to prove their worth, so we are just sticking to our plan.

 Cafonline.com:  How are you motivating your players for the game, especially after your loss?

 Tshosane:  Games like this one needs very little motivation because there is a lot of rivalry involved. Players are self motivated to do well against South Africa and they do not want to register a second loss in a row. But we know our stance, we are still going through a learning curve hence we always double our efforts on all aspects of preparation.

 Cafonline.com:  History shows that the Zebras have a poor record against Bafana Bafana, do you think this will change on Saturday?

Tshosane:  Football has evolved a lot in a short period of time. We qualified for the 2012 AFCON and South Africa failed. So this just shows that anything is possible. These days no one wants to take chances by undermining their opponents.

 Cafonline.com:  Do you believe you still have a chance to qualify for Brazil 2014?

 

Tshosane:  Yes, the chance is still there. If you look at our group, there is only one team with three points, so if we win on Saturday, depending on the other result, we will be back in contention to finish top of the group and move to the next stage of the qualifiers.