Rollers’ preseason focused around CAF Champions League’

As Rollers edges past Kaizer Chiefs in an international friendly

TLOTLO KEBINAKGABO

With the Botswana Premier League (BPL) yet to announce the commencement dates of the 2019/20 season, Township Rollers head coach Tomas Trucha says his team’s pre-season is mainly anchored around the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League preliminary games.

Rollers have had a seemingly intense pre-season thus far on which they have played against two top South African clubs; they lost 3-1 to Supersport United on the 14th of this month in Johannesburg.

They BTC Premiership defending champions went on to host Kaizer Chiefs in an international friendly match, they edged past the Soweto giants 2-1 in an encounter which was played at the Jamali Stadium in Tlokweng this past weekend.

Asked if he is not worried by the fact that the BPL is yet to release league commencement dates considering his team’s busy pre-season schedule , Trucha had this to say; “We are preparing for the CAF games and I think somewhere between the CAF games or after the that the league will start, so our target in the pre-season is mainly on the CAF games.”

When announcing Trucha as the new Rollers coach earlier this month, Rollers president Jagdish Shah gave him a target to at least finish in the CAF Champions League group stages among other aims set for him. Rollers are the only team in Botswana to have reached the competition’s group stages having done so in 2018.

Quizzed on his impression following his side’s win against Chiefs Trucha said; “It was a open game and at the end of the day we are lucky to have won it. It is always nice to beat a team like Chiefs, it’s a big club with a good coach and they are very organized. I am happy that we gave them a hard time and at the end of the day I am happy because the players are working hard in training so they need to feel that we are in the right way and because of the result they feel it.”