Jwaneng Galaxy head coach Morena Ramoreboli believes the club has the potential to become one of the finest on the continent.
The Botswana Premier League champions, coached by the highly-rated South African stunned Simba SC two seasons ago to dump them out of the CAF Champions League and progress to the group stages.
And this season, they have taken the scalp of Ugandan giants Vipers with a 3-2 aggregate scoreline to set up this weekend’s tie with Orlando Pirates.
“I think the Vipers game was tough one, motivating factors, mentally and physically challenging, tactically challenging,” he explained to iDiski Times.
“Those are matches you see how we cope under pressure, which we did well, even though things were not easy – they showed a lot of character, when you go away you know how difficult it is [in Africa].
“At home, we dominated all the phases of the match, and scored beautiful goals, it could have been four or five [goals]. But I’m happy we were able to go through to the next phase of the competition.
“In football, one thing… when you start a project, have targets and try and set goals for yourself, so when I took over this project, I was referring to it as a bamboo tree, the process of producing and nurturing a bamboo tree is a difficult process.
“It requires a lot of patience, and I feel where we are now requires an element of patience to make this team a better team. Jwaneng Galaxy has the potential to become one of the top teams on the continent.
“But it needs patience, especially from those running this project, managing this project and those who are producing the results; the players. It’s important for them to put in more effort.
“For us to get to a point where we automatise things, dominate matches, it doesn’t come easy – we need to work very hard, but I think the Vipers game challenged us in all aspects of the game and I believe we’ll go to the Pirates game with a bit of confidence.”
Ahead of the first leg tie in Jwaneng on Sunday, Ramoreboli admits it’s been a whirlwind journey since joining the club during the Covid-19 pandemic.
And he’s looked to give praise to higher powers for his achievements, having recently been nominated of the Coach of the Season.
“The past 12 months for me personally have been very great, I think I’ve seen the hand of God almighty in my life and career and I’ve seen great things happening, I can only thank the God almighty,” he said.
“I also have to thank the support I get from the family, the technical team of Jwaneng Galaxy, players management and friends. It’s not been easy but when you have a strong support base, it makes things much easier.
“Like I said – God has been good… just for being nominated for Coach of the Year, it’s the second time since I’ve been in Botswana, first the Premier League and now the Botswana Football Association. It shows how much one has been working, sometimes we need to give glory to God Almighty.”
