Senong welcomes exciting COSAFA Cup draw

Lesotho national team coach Thabo Senong has welcomed the COSAFA draw after the Crocodiles were paired in Group A along neighbours South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini for the competition set for Nelson Mandela Bay from 7-18 July.

Senong will be heading to his first COSAFA tournament in charge of the Mountain Kingdom country after the last year’s edition of the tournament was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He previously tasted success in the tournament having won it with Bafana Bafana as the assistant coach to Shakes Mashaba in 2016 in Namibia. Senong also won the COSAFA Under-20 Championship while in charge of Amajita in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

“When you look at the draw in our group, you get two types of feelings. You know the first feeling is excitement that you are playing strong opposition and the second feeling is that we have to be mindful because these teams are very strong and experienced,” Senong stated.

“South Africa are the host, they are technically strong, Eswatini had a good Afcon run, and they are physically strong. Botswana is mentally tough and tactically organized.”

The Lesotho mentor will be heading to Port Elizabeth with a new look team having dropped several of his senior players when he announced his provisional squad on Wednesday.

Top teams in each of the three groups and the best placed runner-up will advance to the semi-finals in what is a change in formation for this year’s tournament.

“We are looking forward to this tournament, we are looking forward to learning, we are bringing new faces, young faces and hope that they compete and learn, but We are going to give our best to make sure that we compete,” the Lesotho coach said.

“The COSAFA Cup is a good platform for players to advertise themselves, get exposure and get scouted. For us as Lesotho, it’s a rebuilding face, we are building the team for CHAN and AFCON qualifiers,” he said.