The Under-20 side will this October kick off the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers. Gaebolae might miss as many as eight players due to school commitments.
They have been pitted against Cameroon in the preliminary round of qualifiers in a two-legged tie to be played early October. Gaebolae on Saturday oversaw her side’s impressive 2-1 win over Lesotho in a preparatory match played at the Lekidi grounds as the team intensifies its preparations for the Cameroon clash. The tactician said she omitted players who will be writing their final examinations from the tie and she was impressed with her side’s overall output. “All these players are not schooling and all those at school would be writing their final exams.
I have excused them from these preparations because I understood that I will not have them in the first leg; maybe they would join in the second leg. This is why I have a wide pool of players I am working with. I have almost 27 players whom we are preparing for the competition with,” she said.
The Mares Under-20 recovered from conceding early into the tie against Lesotho and scored two quick goals in the second half from Koketso Molwantwa and Jessica Maphonga. The team was the better side against their Lesotho counterparts but failed to score more on the day. Gaebolae is aiming for more international friendly matches with just two months before the Cameroon encounter.
“The team that I started with today played very well. We need to refine their tactical awareness and to build these young girls' confidence going forward. They responded well to what we have been doing in training. We have almost three days in camp for these games, but we have weekly training session; on Mondays and Thursdays since February this year. We are eyeing more friendly and more training camps,” Gaebolae told Sport Monitor on Saturday.
Colombia will host the World Cup next year and there has been increase from 16 to 24 participating teams. Meanwhile the Under-17s beat Lesotho 2-1 in a preparatory match played earlier on the afternoon.
