I have no pressure, says Saintfiet

Flames coach Tom Saintfiet has said he is not in a sweat about Saturday’s make-or-break 2014 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria despite going down  0-1 to Botswana on Tuesday night.

Saintfiet was responding to the question whether the loss to Botswana—who are considered lightweights on the continent—puts him under pressure with a few days before taking on the African champions in their own fortress.

“I know people will say Botswana is a small team and we lost, but they are 103 on Fifa rankings [which is 15 places above Flames], they qualified for 2012 Africa Nations Cup and they are still in contention for 2014 World Cup qualification.

“Let’s hope this is a good omen [that we lost the game] because my colleagues tell me that they also lost to Botswana in a friendly [0-1], but they went on to win in Namibia in a World Cup qualifier,” said Saintfiet in a telephone interview from Gaborone yesterday morning.

He admitted that although the Flames are able to create a plethora of chances, lack of firepower remains a challenge going into Saturday’s encounter.

“I think we played good football, we had eight good chances, but we were not composed in front of goal while Botswana had two chances and they scored one.

“It doesn’t matter which team you are playing [against], it can be the Comoros, Nigeria or Haiti, but you have to score and we are lacking firepower,” said Saintfiet.

He said other than concentrating on Tuesday’s result, the focus should switch to Saturday’s swim-or-sink tie.

“We had a technical meeting after the game to analyse the players and see which ones can start the game. We are going to checkout the final formation in due course,” said Saintfiet.

The Flames mentor said he was happy to get a glimpse of players such as Robert Ng’ambi, Tawonga Chimodzi and Harvey Nkacha

“I now have an idea of all the players, but I could not feature Mzava as he was in action on Sunday [for his South African club Bloemfontein Cletic] and I thought it wise to rest him.

“Most of the players were also taken off at some point so that they could have enough rest as we look forward to the Nigeria game.”

The Belgian mentor said there were players who did well, and others who were a big disappointment.

Asked to mention outstanding players and those that were a letdown, Saintfiet said: “I don’t want to talk of individual players, suffice to say some played well while others were very disappointing.”

The Zebras Jerome Ramathlkwane scored the lone goal of the match in 54th minute when he capitalised on a defensive lapse.

A Botswana-based Malawian Rodrick Milanzi said despite dominating the better part of the match, the Flames were guilty of terrible wastage.

Meanwhile Saintfiet has dropped defenders Lucky Malata and George Nyirenda from the squad.

“I would have loved to travel with all the players, but I have been forced to drop these two because we are required to travel with 21 players,” said Saintfiet.

The Flames left for Nigeria yesterday and are expected to arrive this morning.