We will Win the COSAFA Cup for Makakole, Monne
  The country's Under 20 national soccer squad, Makoanyane XI,  wants to win the Vodacom sponsored Council of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) Cup, playing at  various venues in South Africa, from November 27 to December 05 as a tribute to the late LEFA president Thabo Makakole.

Team Manager Ts'iu Monne said in an interview that they wanted to honour the Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) President as the competition is scheduled to start the same day that Makakole was going to be buried and would thus not be able to attend his funeral. On this day, they will be playing their first game, against Zimbabwe.

Monne said another interesting factor about the tournament was that they had would an opportunity to meet Zimbabwe, who lodged a complaint with the continental football governing body after the country eliminated them from the African Youth championship scheduled for Benin next year.

"We want to prove a point by beating Zimbabwe again to show the doubting Thomases that our win over Zimbabwe was not a fluke," he said.


He said their squad has been bolstered by two strikers: Lintho Kori currently the Buddie Premier League top goal scorer, and Orlando Pirates Development Team member Nkopane Ntoi. Their 20 man squad would leave the country on November 25, he said.

After playing Zimbabwe on Saturday morning at Orlando Stadium, Makoanyane's second match will be against Madagascar on November 29 at Germiston Stadium, with the last match, deciding which teams advance to the next round,  will be against Swaziland at Caledonian Stadium in
Pretoria on December 2.

Makoanyane XI reached the semi-finals of this tournament last year after losing on penalties against the host nation South Africa. Zambia claimed championship after humiliating Malawi 4-0. The 13 countries from the Southern Africa region in the tournament are divided into four groups.

3 November 2004