World Cup (Q): Ramoreboli sheds light on Botswana struggles

Botswana coach Morena Ramoreboli has suggested that some of his players need to adjust to the physically draining type of football he wants them to play.

The South African made the observation while sharing his reflections of the 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign for Group G after losing 2-0 to Mozambique on Monday.

The Zebras were seeking to pull themselves into a winning run after arriving in Maputo on the back of an away 3-1 hammering by group leaders Algeria last week.

However, it was not to be. Mozambique cruised to a comfortable lead.

Reflecting on the match, Ramoreboli suggested that his players might have arrived at the Zimpeto National Stadium in Maputo exhausted.

“Honestly speaking, how we try to play takes a lot of energy because we want to be aggressive when we have the ball and try as hard as we can to be aggressive when we do not have the ball,” the coach explained.

“So, those two [tasks] are physically demanding. We need to preach the model which we want for our players to try and understand how they need to be conditioned to be ready for the national team.”

The former Bafana Bafana handler further suggested that their previous match against Algeria and fatigue might have contributed to the loss in Mozambique.

“We did everything to try and win. Unfortunately, we did not. We came into this match and we made a mistake in the first five minutes. We came back. We tried as hard as we could to score a goal going to half time,” Ramoreboli said.

“It is a game of football where you tend to learn and say: ‘maybe in the warm-up we were not activated to start the game we wanted. Maybe travelling. Maybe the way we played the previous game took a lot of energy out of our boys.”

The two consecutive losses have since compromised Botswana’s slim chances of qualifying for the World Cup finals. The Zebras sit fifth in the table with nine points while third and second-placed Mozambique have 15 points each, four points behind run-away leaders Algeria after round eight of games.

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