Botswana 2019-20 Home
Botswana 2021-22 Third
So, Botswana like zebra. Maybe you could guess this from the FA logo, but just in case there are zebra stripe patterns everywhere on the front, with even the sleeve cuffs being black and white! It does feel a little undecided, particularly if you look at some of their older shirts, but it picks a theme and sticks to it. A decent shirt, but feels strangely cautious. Odd to say that about something using 3 colours, but there it is.
Used across 2021 AFCON qualifiers and 2022 World Cup qualifiers, it did not inspire a generation of success. 2022 qualifiers were over almost as they began, with a late penalty in the second leg from Malawi being the only goal of the tie and dumping Botswana straight out. 2021 qualifiers proved a little better, but a single goal loss to each of Zambia, Algeria and Zimbabwe was never going to be helpful Away in Algeria gave them a more devastating loss but an away draw in Zimbabwe and a 1-0 home win over Zambia meant they went home with some pride, albeit in last place.
Next up we have a third shirt, of all things. The faint stripes across the front are simple, but varied enough in spacing and thickness that they work to liven the shirt up despite their lack of complexity. The rear is plain, except for the ZEBRAS at the top. While that is the team’s nickname, it does feel that it could’ve been done a little better. The key part of the shirt, however, is the rearing silhouette of the zebra across the front. It matches the FA (and national) logo, it fits their theme and it isn’t intrusive. It is pretty great!
Definitely used in the 2022 COSAFA Cup, Botswana won all 3 group matches 1-0! The Seychelles, Comoros and Angola didn’t prove to be quite enough preparation for the knockouts though, with a 1-1 draw against Zambia and a 5-4 loss on penalties following in that stage. Relegated to the plate tournament, Botswana were more comfortable in a 2-0 win over eSwatini before falling in the plat final 2-1 against South Africa.
Fairly typical for Botswana, they tend to struggle across the board. Inactive in major tournaments until the 1990’s they’ve not then gone on to make any major impressions. World cup qualifying has, at best, been fairly middling, with some really mixed results. AFCON qualifiers started little better, with them going out in preliminary rounds or finishing bottom of their groups until 2006 qualifiers! Frankly, that state of affairs continued to not be unusual for them. There were some positive results (such as in 2008), however, and 2012 qualifiers brought a seismic shock as Botswana qualified for their first ever AFCON! 1-0 home and away wins over Tunisia (and Chad) were complemented well enough by 2 draws against Malawi and trading wins with Togo for them to top the group! However a 1-0 loss to Ghana and 2-1 loss to Mali would sandwich a devastating 6-1 loss to Guinea and they haven’t been back since. The COSAFA Cup has brought a little extra joy with 3 semi-final losses and 2 final losses, but no silverware.
2002 brought women’s national football to Botswana, as they entered the COSAFA Championship. That went so well (scored 1, conceded 24) that their next tournament attempt would come in 2008 WAFCON qualifiers. Generally results have very much not gone their way with wins few and far between (first WAFCON qualifier win in 2016 qualifiers). However, 2020 Olympic qualifiers saw them stun South Africa on penalties after two 0-0 draws and an away goals progression saw them at the 2022 WAFCON! 2-0 and 1-0 losses to Nigeria and South Africa followed up a 4-2 win over Burundi and they only lost 2-1 to eventual finalists Morocco in the knockouts! A big improvement that couldn’t quite be capitalised on, as they fell in the repechage to get to the World Cup play-offs. In COSAFA they’ve ended up having some success too, with a 4th place in 2019 and 2nd in 2020! The U23s and U20s have struggled, even at COSAFA level where they’ve never made a final, but the U17s have managed 3 AFCONs! The first came via Zambia’s disqualification, the second via them hosting it and the third, in 2013 through, astonishingly, 3 penalty shootouts after 2 legged ties! However, they’ve never scored a single point at a finals. As with the senior team, the women’s youth sides have distinctly struggled for results, though did progress in 2022 U17 qualifiers and have had results over Comoros, Namibia, Madagascar and the Seychelles in COSAFA tournaments.
Futsal and beach soccer are yet to be avenues for Botswana, but may be something for the future.
As with other results, not much will have been expected from Botswana in World Cup qualifiers. A drab 1-0 exit on aggregate against Malawi won’t have been received terribly well, but neither will it have been totally unexpected. They’ll hope for better next time out, but qualification for another major tournament will always be a stretch.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 