Coach Morena Ramoreboli was pleased with Bafana Bafana's reaction to the change of tactics in the second half against Namibia.
Rowan Human cancelled out Elmo Kambindu's strike as Bafana were held to a 1-1 draw by last year's runners-up.
Ramoreboli admits they found it difficult to penetrate the Namibian defence, but admits he was expecting the players to be rusty after three months without competitive action.
"Ja, I think it's always difficult to play against a low block, they were giving us space, time on the ball but they knew which areas to block, so every time we wanted to play those forward passes I think it was always difficult," Ramoreboli told SuperSport TV.
Read | Bafana held by Namibia in COSAFA opener
"Because they formed a block in front of their two centre-backs, so you will always find it difficult to connect with [Victor] Letsoalo. Bringing in two strikers I think we looked better because we started to stretch the centre-backs and now force the full backs to be worried about the space between the centre-back and the full-back.
"And that's when we started to play more through the central corridor but honestly speaking I think our performance was not that consistent," he said.
"We created a couple of chances but obviously it's the first match, I was expecting this, a bit of rustiness. Some of these guys are playing football after maybe three months or so. But I'm happy with a point, we'll go back, prepare for the next match and do our level best to make sure that we get maximum points in the next match. It's gonna be another difficult one."
Bafana's next match becomes a must-win after Group A rivals edged Eswatini 1-0, as only group winners automatically book a spot in the semi-finals.
"You need to find a way to break that block. I think the easiest way to break the block will always be, trying to use the width more, trying to play those diagonal balls, which I think the percentage of those diagonal balls were low," Ramoreboli added.
"And we need to work on those things but like I'm saying, we needed to allow them to play, so that we see a lot of mistakes, go back and correct those mistakes and do better in the next match.
"As much as Botswana won, they also had their own mistakes. Namibia, as much as they scored first, they had their mistakes. It's a game of football.
"For us obviously it was going to be difficult being the hosts, playing against a hungry team who wanted to win, so it was always difficult. But credit to the guys, they fought and adapted well to the tactical changes we made especially in the second half.
"Because we wanted to change a couple of things because we wanted to score and I think they responded well, unfortunately I think we delayed to score the second goal and the game ended up opening again but we'll take the point, go back and prepare for the next match," he added.
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