On the 6th of July 2025, which is three weeks from today, Botswana women senior national football team, The Mares, will start their 2025 Women Africa Cup of Nations (WAfcon) finals opening game.
It will be Botswana’s second successive WAfcon finals appearance after making her debut finals in 2022. Back then as debutants, Botswana sprung a little surprise, finishing in the quarterfinals where they narrowly lost 1 – 2 to hosts Morocco.
Despite those giddy heights, The Mares will arrive in Morocco for this year’s tournament as underdogs. As per the latest FIFA rankings, Botswana, ranked thirty-two (32) in Africa, is the lowest ranked team in the tournament. They are nine places behind the second lowest ranked team in this year’s tournament, Tanzania, which is ranked twenty-third (23rd) in Africa.
Based on these rankings alone, The Mares will have to kick well above their weight if they are to make an impact. This is even more so as they are placed in a very tough group B. The group is composed of the continent’s number one ranked team Nigeria as well as the continent’s 10th and 11th ranked teams, Algeria and Tunisia respectively.
While the odds are so stacked against The Mares, there is hope within the country that they will cause their opponents a few nightmares. Expectation is for the team to go a further step than they did in their debut appearance. Should they not, at least they should reach the quarterfinals again.
To achieve this, Botswana Football Association (BFA) is pulling all stops to help the team compete. This past week, the association announced a 17-member technical team which will guide The Mares at this year’s WAfcon finals. The team will be led by Alex Malete as head coach. He will be assisted by Gaolethoo Nkutlwisang and Bonang Otlhagile as assistant coaches and Thabo Ntsiapane as Goalkeeper Coach.
Interestingly, when The Mares debuted at WAfcon finals in 2022, Nkutlwisang was the head coach while Malete was her assistant. Otlhagile on the other hand led the team as its captain. The trio will be ably advised by veteran coach Losika ‘Six’ Keatlholetswe, who has been appointed as the team’s Technical Director.
Away from those, there are also some very interesting additions to the team. These are Nkagisang Mantsane as Performance Coach, Phemelo Oatile as GPS Coach, Julien Derobe as Opposition Analyst and Onkarabile Ntshimane as the team’s Video Analyst.
This stacking up of the technical team, more especially the addition of the opposition analyst, video analyst and the GPS coach shows intent from the association. It shows the association’s keenness to embrace scientific approach to the game and incorporate it into team preparations.
Coach Malete is an ardent supporter of scientific approach to football, more especially performance analysis. The addition of people on these roles, more especially the GPS coach, will surely come as a welcome development. As a GPS coach, Oatile will furnish Malete with all the data insights to optimise player training and performance.
Using GPS trackers, Oatile will be expected to give Malete and his fellow coaches insights on each player’s metrics such as workload, distance covered, speed and most importantly player fatigue. This will allow coaches to make informed decisions during training and matches and to curb potential injuries to players.
“We have to applaud the BFA for the way they have set up The Mares’ technical team this year,” football analyst and Kagiso Kgaogano says. “This set up and the appointments are long overdue.”
He points out that the addition of more people to the technical team adds more quality to the team. “The addition of Ronaldo (Nkutlwisang) and Bebeto (Otlhagile) to the team is a welcome development. Both of them understand these players, they were with them at the last WAfcon, Nkutlwisang as their coach and Otlhagile leading them as their captain. They have worked with Malete and I believe they will work well again.”
While praising the BFA for the appointments, Kgaogano however lamented that the appointments were done late. He believes the roles taken by Keatlholetswe, Mantsane, Oatile, Derobe and Ntshimane should have long been done to allow them to familiarise themselves with the team. This would enable them to know the players better and understand every aspect of their game.
He says the current structure, even if it may not be complete, should be a minimum requirement for all national teams. Meanwhile, The Mares will leave the country this coming week for an intensive training camp in Morocco. The camp is another attempt by the BFA to enhance the team’s chances at the upcoming WAfcon finals.
The Mares’ first game at the tournament will be against Algeria on the 6th of July. They will then take on Nigeria on the 10th July before concluding their group matches against Tunisia on the 13th of July.
