Whose city is it?
Township Rollers is heavily breathing on Gaborone United’s neck as the latter is on the run with the bragging rights of Gaborone
It was hard to project the title race at full- time of the titanic clash between Township Rollers and Gaborone United at Royal Aria last month, something that was not the case before kick- off.
For Romain Folz, it was desperately imperative to collect maximum points against a financial and local footballing behemoth, a challenge which the young French tactician overcame with an impressive 1- 0 win.
The win reduced the points difference between the two city giants to just one in favour of GU, albeit with the latter having a game in hand, but Rollers faithful supporters were more optimistic of a title push more than they were ahead of the match. Currently, The Money Machine are only two points ahead of Rollers, following their Friday’s 0- 0 draw away to Morupule Wonderers while Rollers thumped Prisons XI 3- 1, but The Reds still have one game in hand which is against Jwaneng Galaxy. Having won four titles in the last 5 seasons before the COVID- 19 outbreak, Township Rollers are used to winning ways and once again find themselves as title chasers. Innocent Morapedi and Pontsho Moloi, the expensively- assembled squad has firmly held onto the top spot, almost their default position since the beginning of the season. Whatever happens from here on, Folz can be proud of taking the fight to Gaborone United; given the disparities at play and how the team was performing during Hassan Oktay’s reign, it looked impossible.
The Mapalastina manager is not ready to congratulate his players on the feat of pushing The Money Machine all the way just yet, he knows that the title race is still very much alive.
His comments in the aftermath of their 3- 1 win over Prisons on Friday were unsurprising.
“There are things we still have to improve, I am disappointed with the goal we conceded but there are certain things which I liked about our play, on and off the ball. At the moment we can only focus on ourselves, we know we have to win our games to stand a chance, so we will continue to work and that is the only thing we can do at the moment,” Folz responded when quizzed about the title challenge. Folz always seems to know the right words in any given situation, he may be blessed with mentality monsters inside the Blues dressing room, but he plays an instrumental role in maintaining their mental fortitude. Whether
Gaborone United will collapse remains an unlikely scenario but nothing outside the possibilities of the game. “It’s in our hands to be honest, so we prepare accordingly.
They can manage maximum of 71 points and we can manage 76, we still afford to lose a game but we don’t want to do that; we want to wrap it up as soon as possible so that we can focus on other competitions,” Gaborone United assistant coach Pontsho Moloi responded when contacted. “We didn’t lose against Morupule, it is two points dropped and it was good two points dropped, next game is Masitaoka, as always we will go out to win the match,” Moloi added. Jwaneng Galaxy, who stand an outside chance to win the title were dealt a major blow when they lost to 1- 0 to Orapa United on Friday and they still have the top two sides in their fixtures.