Copper Queens assistant coach Charles Haalubono paid a glowing tribute to head coach Nora Elizabeth Häuptle in his post match interview after the Swiss missed the Three Nations Tournament due to illness.
Haalubono said Häuptle’s guidance was invaluable to the team to be able to perform as well as they did in Lilongwe. Häuptle fell ill in her home country, Switzerland and could not travel for the tournament.
The Green Buffaloes Women’s Football Club assistant gaffer was also quick to heap praise on the players and noted an improvement in conversion of chances.
“Yeah we are happy as a team.First of all let me take this opportunity to thank our head coach who’s unwell and we wish her well we say thank you for the guidance she has been giving us, You know, we can’t do all this without her. She has been there for us. We really appreciate how we can do what we are doing. Coming to the game, yes, the girls have performed very well. It was a highly tactical game. I’m sure you saw how Zimbabwe was lining up. It was good that when we created chances, we were able to get goals,” he said.
“Yes, we have seen a good improvement in terms of converting chances because against Malawi we wasted so many chances but today at least out of those chances we had we managed to get three goals.”
“Yes, we had planned for this. We looked at the way they stood. Then we capitalized on the second ball, which we were playing very fast behind the defense,” he added.
Haalubono thanked the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) for organizing the tournament.
He also acknowledged the absence of key players like skipper Barbra Banda and Grace Chanda but feels the players who are given a chance in such a scenario have to prove themselves since that’s how football works.
“You know football you keep on learning every time so we thank the organizers the Football Association of Malawi for organizing this tournament it has given us an audience to check where we are supposed to improve so it’s a very good learning tournament for us yes we look at our players and try to improve if it requires inclusions we’ll do that,” he said.
“Yeah we are convinced we always miss our players you know. They are extremely good so when they are not around normally we have this gap but in football whoever is given a chance must prove because again you cannot stick to the same players over and over so when a player is given that chance she must utilize it and try to follow the steps of our captain and Grace Chanda Yes,” he added.
ZESCO Ndola Girls winger Eneless Phiri was the star of the show scoring twice against Zimbabwe and setting up Natasha Nanyangwe for the equalizer against Malawi.
Coach Haalubono gave the youngster her flowers saying her impact was big for the team and that he appreciated her services.
“A fast developing player. We are happy with her performance, her contribution to the team. It has really made a big impact on our team. Yes, we appreciate her services,” he said.
Zambia drew 1-1 with Malawi before thrashing Zimbabwe 3-1 to win the 2025 Three Nations Tournament.
The tournament was being used as part of preparations for the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted by Morocco.
