BLACK FOREST STILL STRUGGLING TO FIND FOOTING
OTSE; Black Forest continues to struggle in the early days of the 2018/2019 BTC Premiership as they lost once again at Otse Police college against the Jungle kings. Since the league began, the Mmankgodi based club has not won a single game.
Looking back at the previous season, especially towards the end of the second round, one could see that there was a problem looking at the performance of the club. It was slowly diminishing.Magoleng took on the Jungle kings in the afternoon searching for their first win.
The game started with a positive note as both teams started by attacking each other in search of an early goal. Police XI got their inteded goal first through their marksman Bonolo Fraiser. It came from a low cross and was easily tapped in. It was a controversial goal as the Magoleng supporters felt it was an offside. The technical of Black Forest was even given a red card because he could not stop protesting the goal.
The game went on, one would expect, Betsho Puis was the man in charge of the game. He orchestrated play very well. His sprayed passes from side to side so well. Made a lot of breakthrough passes which were not appreciated well by his attaches. There was a fierce battle between him and the captain of Magoleng, Mogomotsi Kerebotswe “Goms”.
The problem with Forest midfield was that Koketso Majafi and Mogomotsi Kerebotswe were too apart from each other most of the time. So they could not cover for each other well. Mogomotsi Kerebotswe was too deep and Koketso Majafi too high and that left a gap in between them. Puis used that space mostly.However some parts of the game they marked well and closed that space as it made them to chase Betsho Pius most of the time. Majafi levelled matters with a very beautiful strike some minutes after police scored. It was game on , the two teams continued attacking each other until halftime, still 1-1.
After break the fight continued. Police XI were stronger on the wings because they could cross into the box. Magoleng were not able to do that , most of the balls just ended on the wins especially Donald Botshoma, most of the time he was trying to take on the defence instead of just taking crosses. He also trying to play one-twos which were mostly intercepted. The second goal came from a cross and was headed home by Fraiser to make his second of the afternoon. Magoleng tried responding to the call, pulled more attack on the Jungle kings.
The problem was support. Their strikers did no have enough support upfront. Most of the time when having the ball, their teammates will be deep inside. They were a bit slow to go forward after defending the ball.Eliphas Nyambi put the game further for Magoleng with a third goal. Goabaone Mogorosi failed to calculate the ball , went over his head and Nyambi made a run behind him, picked the spot and placed the ball into the net. The Mmankgodi boys started losing concentration as they looked so tired. A forth one came from a solo run from the middle of the park by Joseph Joseph passing through the players until he scored.
The coach Bakanuki Mafi Maseko indicated that his players lack fitness. He went on to explain that teams start scoring from the 70th minute upwards because then his players will be tired. Maseko said him and his assistant went for CAF coaching lessons for two weeks, he believes that’s were the boys lost fitness. “The boys were fine in the pre-season, fully fit and ready to compete” said Maseko.
The other BTC games of week 3 went as follows; Friday 31st, BDF XI 3-0 Security Systems, Extension Gunners 2-1 Gaborone United. Saturday 1st September Police XI 4-1 Black Forest,Jwaneng Galaxy 0-0 Township Rollers, Sharps Shooting Stars 1-0 Orapa United, Sankoyo Bush Bucks 1-2 Prisons XI.
