Botswana women's national football team

The Botswana women's national football team nicknamed 'The Zebras' (Female) is the women's national football team of Botswana and is controlled by the Botswana Football Association. It has never qualified for a major tournament.

Botswana

Nickname(s)	(Female) The Zebras
Association	Botswana Football Association
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Sub-confederation	COSAFA (Southern Africa)
Head coach	Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang
Captain	Bonang Otlhagile[1]
Home stadium	Botswana National Stadium
FIFA code	BOT
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	131 17 (18 December 2020)[2]
Highest	92 (December 2009)
Lowest	152 (July 2019)
First international
South Africa 14–0 Botswana  (Harare, Zimbabwe; April 19, 2002)
Biggest win
Botswana 7–0 Mauritius  (Lobatse, Botswana; March 5, 2016)
Biggest defeat
South Africa 14–0 Botswana  (Harare, Zimbabwe; April 19, 2002)

Botswana played in the qualification for the 2002 African Championship, but lost in their first game. After this, they also took part in the qualification for the 2008 African Championship, where they played two matches and lost both to Namibia at the end of 2007. Botswana did not play again until the qualification for the 2010 Championship, where they lost both matches, this time against Democratic Republic of the Congo. For these games, Botswana named an entirely U20 national team.[3] They have also played games since they were eliminated from qualification.

History

Botswana played their first match in Harare, Zimbabwe on April 19, 2002 against South Africa in a series of friendlies. They lost 14–0. After this match they lost 3–0 against Swaziland and 7–1 against Mozambique, in where they scored their first goal.

Botswana's first major competition was in the 2008 African Women's Championship, in where after 5 years they played an international match, this time against Namibia. Zebras lost both legs by 3–0 and 6–1.

Botswana had played with Zambia on 4 May 2008 and lost 4–2.

With a U20 team, Zebras played 2010 African Women's Championship qualifiers against Congo DR and again lost both legs, this time by 2–0 and 5–2 and did not qualify for either the 2010 African Women's Championship and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup

A series of friendlies occurred in October 2010, against Zambia on 2 and 23 October, lost 1–4 and 1–2 respectively; against Tanzania on 25 October and 26 October, lost 2–3 and draw 1–1. In the next year, March 2011, they again played against Namibia and lost 1–0.

In 2011, one of the two friendlies in April and May with South Africa marked their first victory, by 1–0. The other match was lost 4–0. In August, they played against Tanzania on 2 August, losing 3–1; South Africa on August 3, losing 4–0 and against Zambia, also losing, 4–1.

They entered the 2012 African Women's Championship qualifiers and played against Zimbabwe, and was eliminated by an aggregate score of 3–1, due to losing the two legs by 1–0 and 2–1. Last friendlies in 2012 include two losses against South Africa (3–0) and Zimbabwe (5–0).

Before the 2014 African Women's Championship qualifiers, the team played the first 2014 matches, against Swaziland on 7 and 8 January and won for the second and third time, by 3–0 and 3–1. The first leg of the qualifiers for the African Championship started on 14 February with a loss against Zimbabwe 1–0 and the second leg was played on 2 March, with another loss, by 2–1, Botswana ended eliminated from the African Championship and the World Cup. On June 7 of the same year, they played against South Africa, losing 4–0.

Home stadium

The Botswana women's national football team plays their home matches on the Botswana National Stadium.

Honours

Regional

• COSAFA Women's Championship

Runners-up: 2020

Achievements

Women's World Cup record

FIFA Women's World Cup Finals
Year	Result	GP	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD
1991	Did Not Enter
1995
1999
2003
2007
2011	Did Not Qualify
2015
2019
2023	To Be Determined
Total	0/9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Olympic Games record

Summer Olympics
Year	Result	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA
1996	Did Not Enter
2000
2004
2008
2012	Did Not Qualify
2016
2021
Total	0/7	0	0	0	0	0	0

Africa Women Cup of Nations record

African Women's Championship
Year	Result	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA
1991	Did not enter
1995
1998
2000
2002	Withdrew
2004	Did not enter
2006	Withdrew
2008	Did not qualify
2010
2012
2014
2016
Total	0/12	-	-	-	-	-	-

African Games record

All-Africa Games
Year	Result	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA
2003	Did Not Enter
2007
2011	Did Not Qualify
2015	To Be Determined
Total	0/4	0	0	0	0	0	0

Coaching staff

Position	Name	Ref.
Head coach	Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang

Players

Current squad

• The following players were called up for the 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship. A provisional squad was announced on 16 October 2020.[4] The final squad was selected prior to the tournament.[5]

• Caps and goals accurate up to and including date month year.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Club
1	GK	Tlamelo Pheresi	30 November 1996	Prisons
16	GK	Lesedilame Bosija	1 December 1997	Bloemfontein Celtic
20	GK	Lesego Moeng		Geronah
2	DF	Kesegofetse Mochawe	30 January 1995	Prisons
3	DF	Annah Sechane	7 February 2001	Township Rollers
4	DF	Masego Montsho	15 June 1991	Botswana Defence Force
11	DF	Lone Gaofetoge	16 July 2001	Geronah
12	DF	Bonang Otlhagile (captain)	7 August 1986	Double Action
15	DF	Theo George	30 January 2001	Wonder Sporting
5	MF	Gaonyadiwe Ontlametse	12 January 2000	Double Action
6	MF	Golebaone Selebatso	22 March 1991	Prisons
8	MF	Masego Nfandiso		Geronah
10	MF	Lesego Radiakanyo	23 July 1999	Double Action
13	MF	Leungo Senwelo	23 December 2001	Double Action
17	MF	Leano Busang	20 December 1999	Prisons
7	FW	Refilwe Tholekele	26 January 1996	Township Rollers
9	FW	Mokgabo Thanda		Yasa
14	FW	Michelle Abueng	6 May 2001	Yasa
18	FW	Nondi Mahlasela	25 December 1991	Prisons
19	FW	Esalenna Galekhutle	23 January 2001	Mexican Girls

Recent call-ups

• The following players have been called up to the Botswana squad in the past 12 months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up

Previous squads

COSAFA Women's Championship

• 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship squad

Individual records

• Active players in bold, statistics correct as of 2020.

Most capped players # Player Year(s) Caps

Top goalscorers # Player Year(s) Goals Caps

Managers

• Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang (–present)

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Lose   Fixtures

2019

2 October 2019 2020 CAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Third round 1st leg	Zambia	1–0	Botswana	Nkoloma Stadium, Lusaka
15:00 UTC+2	Mwakapila  21'

8 October 2019 2020 CAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Third round 2nd leg	Botswana	0–2	Zambia	Francistown Stadium, Francistown
19:00 UTC+2			Chanda  18', 53'

2020

5 April 2020 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification	Namibia	Cancelled	Botswana
		Cancellation

13 April 2020 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification	Botswana	Cancelled	Namibia
		Cancellation

7 November 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship	Botswana	1–0	Tanzania	Wolfson Stadium, Ibhayi
12:30	Thanda  48'	Report

9 November 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship	Zimbabwe	0–1	Botswana	Gelvandale Stadium, Port Elizabeth
12:30		Report	Tholekele  73'

12 November 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship	Botswana	2–1	Zambia	Wolfson Stadium, Ibhayi
12:00	Gaofetoge  8' Tholekele  39' (pen.)	Report	Lungu  45+5'

14 November 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship	Botswana	1–2	South Africa	Wolfson Stadium, Ibhayi
15:00	Thanda  85'	Report	Holweni  2' Salgado  66'

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2014-11-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
3. Bad start for women's football team Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine Botswana Gazette
4. Kerileng, Gaone Pearl (16 October 2020). "Botswana Mares name provisional squad for COSAFA Champs". COSAFA.
5. "Botswana 1-0 Tanzania". COSAFA. 7 November 2020.

External links

• Official website (in English)
• FIFA profile, FIFA.com (in English)