Botswana to play Burkina Faso, Egypt in soccer friendlies

Botswana's national under-23 soccer team is scheduled to play Burkina Faso and Egypt as part of their preparation for the 2015 All Africa Game and Olympic qualifiers.

The Botswana Football Association (BFA) announced on Tuesday the team will play a friendly game with African Cup of Nations (AFCON) bound Burkina Faso in Nelspruit, South Africa on Tuesday afternoon.

Burkina Faso is in South Africa fine tuning their preparation for the 2015 AFCON that kicks off in January 15th in Equatorial Guinea.

Speaking to the media prior to the team's departure on Monday, coach Pio Paul said the main objective of the high profile game against the Stallions would be to learn from their opponents as well as gauge his team's strength.

He said he would travel with at least 15 under-23 players and six senior national team players to give them an opportunity to guide the young players. He said they are taking the game very serious as Burkina Faso was using it as AFCON 2015 preparation.

The coach was however disappointed that he did not have all the players he wanted as some were held by club commitments as their clubs are gearing to compete in the CAF club competitions and therefore could not release them.

Meanwhile after the Burkina Faso encounter, the team would travel to Egypt to play against the young Pharaohs. The Egypt trip would only include the Under 23 players.

"I am happy because we are going to play strong opponents. All this friendly games will help us to gauge our strengths and weaknesses before the start of the qualifiers," Paul said. Endi