From The Archives - Litšepe Marabe

Litšepe “Cobra” Marabe – Matlama’s flying winger

This Sunday Lesotho kicks off its 2011 Caf African Youth Championship campaign with a match against Egypt. Here’s a piece about one of the team’s key players, Litšepe Marabe. This article was first written in March 2009.

If the Lesotho Premier League was contested in line with the calendar not from spring to autumn then Matlama would be top – if not, then pretty close.

Matlama have been dazzling in 2009. Apart from hiccups against Butha-Buthe Roses and Naughty Boys Tse Putsoa have been perfect; so much so that if their form in the first half of the season had been even half as good Matlama would be title contenders.

While much of the upturn can be attributed to the return of Ntebele Taole as coach at the start of January, another vital ingredient has been the form of Litšepe Marabe.

The 17 year-old left-winger has been instrumental to Matlama’s form and he speaks after a week where his side collected six points with impressive victories over Lioli last Wednesday and Swallows on Sunday, to lift them to fourth position in the premiership.

As with his team, Marabe’s start to the season, partly due to calf and ankle problems, was a frustrating one.

Since the turn of the year however Marabe has been reborn churning out performance after performance such as his man of the match showing in Matlama’s 1-0 win away to champions LCS last month. That victory meant the Maseru Glamour Boys completed the double over Masheshena after a 2-0 win at Pitso Ground in January. Marabe, clad in Matlama blue, believes his best performance came in that first Matlama versus LCS installment.

With the match tied at a tedious 0-0 Marabe sprung off the bench to create two goals.

“That’s my best game. I came in after half time and from my first touch there was a goal,” he smiles.  “I felt it was a miracle. The second goal was also created by me.”

It was a watershed moment for the youngster. “After that game I came off the field feeling the match was mine. It gave me the confidence that I can do anything,” he says. Although the following game, losing 1-0 at Butha-Buthe Roses, was a disappointment, Marabe, once again coming off the bench, did enough to warrant a starting position. Since then Marabe has been a fixture in Matlama’s line-up, routinely creating havoc down the wing, as Tse Putsoa have won three of four premier league games.

It’s a far cry from the shambles that was Matlama under former coach Halemakale Mahlaha.

Marabe offers a simple explanation. “The team spirit was low. When we lose you get angry at each other, things like that. I guess the coach had a role in that,” he says.

“Also we didn’t play well in the Macufe Cup (a pre-season tournament) and from then there were a lot of conflict between the coach and management.”

That state of affairs led to a loss in confidence which engulfed the whole club. Losing and sliding down the log a radical shake-up at Matlama at the end of 2008 saw a change not only of the coach but of the club’s entire executive.

It has worked wonders. Stable, the Glamour Boys have rediscovered their swagger.

To Marabe the credit goes to Taole. “Yes he has changed the team,” he says. “I would say something like fitness we are only getting now. Another good thing about him is that he has been in football a very long time and he gives us his knowledge.”

“He gives us time to teach us football. There can be a time when he doesn’t train us at all and he just sits down and talks to us,” Marabe smiles. “(As result) every game we play we feel we can win.”

Taole, a hard task master, has also brought discipline. “That’s another thing that killed us; a lack of discipline, guys drinking and whatever – just not being serious,” Marabe says. Taole’s approach coupled with a new management which Marabe says has “given the players motivation to play” have breathed life into Matlama’s campaign. “We want to finish in the top four, that is our aim,” Marabe affirms.

However for a club like Matlama fourth is just not enough.

It’s been six years since Matlama last won the league, too long for a club with the history and heritage of Matlama. Despite finishing third and fifth in the last two seasons Marabe, who joined the club in 2007, knows it’s time he and his mates won the championship.

“Ever since I have been here we haven’t won a trophy, we have to win the league. Maybe next season,” he says.

Matlama’s problem though, as illustrated by recent defeats to weaker sides, is a lack of experience, something Marabe acknowledges. “We have a young team and the only experienced players are Killer (Lehlohonolo Mokhele), Moscow (Lebakeng Lebetsa) and Combe (Hlomelang Theko) and the captain, Sello Seholoholo,” he says.

“Also when smaller teams play us they raise their game,” Marabe adds. “There is also some pressure playing for Matlama. The fans always want a win. You always have to be happy. But we know we have to win the league. We have too many great players in this team,” he says.

Another mission yet to be crossed off on Marabe’s to-do list is to represent Lesotho. Having had a taste of the national set up last year he says he is desperate to get back in – and play.

“I would love to play for Likuena. The coach (Zavisa Milosavljevic) called me up last year (October) when the team was going to play Ghana. I did well in the tests and training, but I had to write exams so I didn’t play,” he says.

He adds: “I think the national team should be voted for by the people. The one thing is that we don’t choose players on form. Also if you look at Botswana they play with a young team. That’s what we need to do.”

That’s not all Marabe wants to see change in Lesotho football.

“I hear that our football is supposed to be professional by 2012 but I don’t see anything changing,” he says.

“Lefa (Lesotho Football Association) too have to show some sort of change, 2012 is not far. We need to get professional; we can’t just be doing this to stretch our legs. There is too much talent in this country. Lesotho can be number one,” Marabe says. And while hen says is “totally” happy at Matlama there is still one issue that bothers Marabe.

“One thing I would like to see is if we could get grass or even Astroturf at Pitso Ground. If you could find that every game was played on a ground like the one at LCS then you would find that our football will improve a hundred percent.”

“That’s where sponsors come in. If you can get a sponsor then you can say ‘help us with this’. We really need to better our fields,” he says.

“If you look at players right now, we have no boots. They don’t last, they can’t last. And when you look at our fields there’s no improvement. Our neighbours are improving but we are not, and there is supposed to be a professional league by 2012.”

Overall though Marabe is positive about the present; he and his team, he believes, can only get better.

“I have a lot of speed and I don’t tire easily. Even at that fitness test (with Likuena) I was the fastest. I like (Lionel) Messi; even at my team they call me Messi. I think they feel that I play like him,” he beams.

Marabe may have some way to go to reach the heights of the Argentina starlet, but if he keeps going the same way, then the sky is the limit.