Sun, 11 Dec 2016 11:56:14 +0000
By Bennie Mundano
ZAMBIA needs more competitive games ahead of the U-20 African Championship next year if we are to do well in the competition, national senior team coach Wedson Nyirenda has said.
Speaking after watching South Africa beat Swaziland by a goal to nil at the on-going Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) tournament on Friday, Nyirenda said the regional tournament provided an opportunity to gauge the team ahead of the competition next year but that there was need for more of such high-profile matches if the team was to excel.
He was impressed with the general organisation of the tournament and the competitiveness among the players which would help Zambia although more needed to be done to adequately prepare the team for the continental championship which Zambia will host next year.
“I think for this category of players, this is wonderful, we need more of this and this is encouraging. For now we need this competition to wipe out some cobwebs in our mind because if we were just training at home, it was not going to be good for us. We need more of competitive games after the Cosafa,” Nyirenda said
Meanwhile, Zambia today takes on Malawi at the on-going tournament looking for a winner to qualify to the semi-finals after a resounding 5-1 victory over Zimbabwe to set a date with winners of group D.
The Beston Chambeshi-drilled side go into the encounter as favourites after Malawi were held to a barren draw against Zimbabwe in the second match for group B and will be looking for inspiration from Patson Daka, Edward Chilufya, Chrispin Sakulanda, Fashion Sakala, and Moses Nyondo who all scored in the demolition of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe are on the brink of elimination after a 5-1 loss to Zambia and the infamous barren draw against Malawi as they have only managed a point from two games and must now wait anxiously for the outcome of the match between the other two teams today.
