Zambia Women’s National Team coach Bruce Mwape has remained optimistic that the Copper Queens can qualify to the next round despite a huge 3-0 loss in their opening match.
Mwape believes his side can still qualify to the next round. The gaffer was pleased with the way the team played in the second half.
He was also quick to admit that mistakes in the first half led to the three goals scored by the White and Stripes.
“Fans shouldn’t lose hope, we still have two more games to go, we can still qualify to the quarterfinals, and it’s not the end of the world. It was a bad result but the girls did well especially in the second half. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half and they capitalised on those mistakes but in the second half, we picked up,” Mwape said.
“We need to strategize once again, because we need to start creating chances unlike the way we played the USA game and am sure we will be able to carry the day.”
Mwape already has his sights on facing Australia on Sunday. The Matildas lost 3-0 to Germany making Sunday’s match more crucial than ever.
“The morale is still high. When we conceded three goals in the first half, we thought it was going to be worse in the second half but we changed the tactics, things happened and we will stick to the same tactics so that we get a win in the second game,” Mwape said.
“(Defender) Esther (Muchinga) played well because she came in the first half, she never made mistakes in the second half she did well and we will stick to the same player.”
A brace by Mallory Swanson and a Trinity Rodman goal gave the USA maximum points in a match that the Copper Queens played one hour with a player less following Pauline Zulu’s red card inside 30 minutes.
The top two teams after matchday three will progress to the quarterfinals and will be joined by two best third-place teams to the tournament’s knockout stage.
Zambia is playing in its second consecutive Olympics after having debuted at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.
CLUELESS COACH
TECHNICAL BENCH is slowly becoming questionable too.
A coach who tells the opponent what player is available even if it were obvious is clueless. Anyway as always we pray for individual brilliance to show up and light up our path as we move towards nsimbi za JEREMANY this month end.
Do not underestimate bene MATILDA they have a game plan to make sure we shall be a man down so they too can finnish us.