The Zambia Women’s national team has put utmost importance on the 2021 COSAFA Women’s Championship which has kicked off today.
Midfielder Esther Namukwasa says the tournament will be used as part of the preparation for the 2022 AFCON qualifiers. The Indeni Roses midfielder says the team will not underrate any team as there are no pushovers at the tournament.
“As a team, we are taking this COSAFA tournament seriously as part of the preparation for the AFCON qualifiers. We participated in the Olympics and hence the fans are very expectant and we have to work hard, pull up our socks and fight for the trophy,” She said
“We have to work hard as senior players to lead the newcomers. Uganda is a very good side we lost to them in 2018 and Eswatini is also not a bad side, We are not underrating any team, there is no pushover in Women’s football, We are going there to fight for the trophy.”
” We don’t have any pressure, yes the fans will be expecting a lot but we just have to work hard. We urge the fans to keep supporting us,” She added.
Meanwhile forward Avell Chitundu believes the experience from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will help the team a lot at the tournament.
“We have prepared well, despite having had few days to prepare. The experience we got from the Olympics will help us a lot because we faced better players and stronger teams and we learned a lot of things which will help us do well at the Tournament,” she said.
“It hurts a lot that it’s always South Africa’s Banyana Banyana who lift the trophy hence we need to work hard so that we can also win it.”
“We want to ask the fans to continue supporting us,” She added.
Delegation leader and FAZ Women’s national representative says the Association has put modalities in place to motivate the girls adequately and that they expect a very good performance from the team.
” Our expectations at FAZ are very high. The World is watching and expects us to do well especially after the showing at the Olympics. The U-20 Girls have set high standards after the Malawi win, and the seniors were there to watch, and am sure they know that they have to also do more of the same,” she said.
“From our side, we have done everything to motivate the girls and lift their morale.”
” My word to the technical team is that we are expectant and the ball is in their court, As FAZ we want good results and we just expect that they will be able to deliver, this is their chance,” she added.
Zambia is in Group C alongside Eswatini, Namibia, and Uganda at the regional showpiece set to run from September 28-October 9th in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The Copper Queens will face Eswatini in the opening Group C match on 30 September and their penultimate fixture will be against Namibia three days later while their final group campaign is against tournament guests Uganda on 5 October.
