Coach blames referee after loss to Banyana
Tumelo Mouwane | Wednesday April 15, 2015 14:45
Botswana lost 5-0 to their South African counterparts in Dobsonville Stadium on Saturday, ending their hopes of taking part in the continental showpiece.
South Africa progressed to the next round with a 6-0 aggregate, having won 1-0 in the first leg in Botswana in March.
She said the referee was unfair to the Botswana side hence the thrashing at the hands of the regional favourites.
“The first goal of the game was a penalty, which was not justifiable enough to be awarded.
“The second goal resulted from a clear offside, but the referee did not blow his whistle.
The time frame in which the goals were scored also brought a slow down on the girls,” Nkutlwisang said.
Banyana Banyana’s history of thrashing Botswana side with numerous goals stretches back to 2014 when they destroyed them 10 -0 in friendly game.
The local girls had advanced to the second round of the qualifiers to play South Africa after beating Madagascar on 3-2 aggregate score.
They failed to defeat Banyana Banyana on both first and second leg encounters.
Nkutlwisang had anticipated a good performance prior to the game and had said the girls were in a good form and had no fear for the opponents.
Her intentions were to get a goal within 20 minutes into the game only for South Africa to get that goal instead.
He admitted that Banyana Banyana did their homework against the local team.
“What I can say is that the South African side did their assignment.
We had expected South Africa to bring the team that we played against at Molepolole Sports Complex a fortnight ago.
“However, we found a totally different team. The South Africans were also advantaged by a complete technical team as compared to us. That in itself played a crucial part,” she said.
She also added that they were going to review the mistakes they made throughout the All Africa Games (AAG) qualifiers and improve where they went wrong.
“Our focus is directed towards the 2015 CAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament which will commence in May,” she added.