The Zambia Women National team has set off for Chile where they will play two international friendly matches against La Roja Feminina.
Head coach Bruce Mwape believes the team is ready for the two friendly games against La Roja Feminina. Mwape feels it’s important to have such games.
“The team is ready, From the time we went to South Africa for the COSAFA tournament we have not broken camp. We have only dropped three players from the team that went to South and we included some players from the junior team (U-17),” he said.
“The idea is to expose the players to a high profile match, They will not be under pressure because they know they are playing a strong side so it’s just a question of gauging themselves am sure they are capable of handling pressure from any team.”
“It’s important to have such games because were we going at the Olympics those are the teams we expect to meet so we would like to have an idea of the level we should reach before we go to the Olympics,” he added.
Zambia will play Chile on November 28 and December 1 in Santiago as part of preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Bruce Mwape has named 20 players for the Chile assignment including four foreign-based players namely Mary Mwakapila who plays her football in Israel, skipper Barbara Banda and Spain based duo of Rachel Nachula and Hellen Mubanga.
The two international friendly matches are part of preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games while Chile is preparing for their last gasp playoff with Cameroon to decide the final ticket for the Olympics.
FULL SQUAD:
(GOALKEEPERS)
Catherine Musonda (Indeni) Ngambo P. Musole (Zesco)
(DEFENDERS)
Agness Musesa, Anita Mulenga, Martha Tembo, Lushomo Wilombe (all Green Buffaloes), Vast Phiri (Zesco), Esther Siamfuko (Queens Academy), Fikile Khosa (Red Arrows),
(MIDFIELDERS)
Judith Zulu (Green Buffaloes), Esther ‘Gelo’ Banda (Bauleni United Sports Academy), Mary Mulenga, Mary Wilombe (Red Arrows), Misozi Zulu (Indeni), Mary Mwakapila (Hapoel Beer Sheva-Israel)
(STRIKERS)
Hellen Mubanga (CFF Zaragoza-Spain), Grace Chanda (Zesco), Barbara Banda (Shanghai Shengli-China), Maylan Mulenga (Green Buffaloes), Rachel Nachula (CFF Zaragoza -Spain)
