Botswana Premier League new entrants from the northern region, Nico United and Eleven Angels are currently taking part in the pre-season tournaments as part of their preparations for the coming season.
The pre-season tournaments often feature top teams from across the country, which allows coaches to test their players against competition. Over the past weekend, Nico United hosted the Selebi Phikwe pre-season tournament at Sam Sono Stadium in which Nico United, Superstars United, Township Rollers and Peace Makers participated.
Township Rollers won the tournament after a 3-0 victory over Super Stars United and another 4-0 victory against Peacemakers, while the tournament’s hosts, Nico United lost to Super Stars in the semi-final.
Nico United will again play a one-day pre-season tournament dubbed Soccer Challenge cup on the 20 August 2022 in Francistown, Old Stadium. Other participating teams in the tournament will include Calendar Stars, Eleven Angels and Chadibe FC.
Nico United Public Relations Officer Ntibi Kedikilwe said the pre-season tournaments allow them to build solid foundations for their fitness, agility and strength. He also added that it allows them to improve their technical ability, and ensure optimum performance.
He revealed that as a way of preparing for the season they recently signed the 23 year old right winger Kelvin Ndebele who played for Caps United FC in Zimbabwe (2018-2020) and Tinyosi FC in Swaziland (2021-2022). Kedikilwe further revealed that they have also signed Thatayaone Magazi, a former Sua Flamingoes striker.
Eleven Angels Coach Seeemo Mpatane has indicated that they started a bit late because of the play-off games. He revealed that they have only played one pre-season friendly game against Shashe Mooke United FC over the past weekend. The match was held in Shashe Mooke at Comets Grounds and Eleven Angels won 1-0 against the hosts.
Mpatane said they have three tournaments lined up, one of them being the Soccer Challenge cup slated for the 20th August in Francistown, Old Stadium. He said the tournament will give them an opportunity to assess the performance of their new players and engrave them into system of play.
Meanwhile Angels have also extended their contract with key attacker Monty Enosa for an additional two years. Enosa became a talk of the game following his impressive performance against Mochudi Centre Chiefs during a two legged encounter of the First Division promotional play-off to the premier league.
