Zambia Under-17 women’s national team coach Carol Kanyemba says her side must improve their confidence in possession and defensive transitions after the Copper Princesses suffered a 3-0 defeat to China in a pre-World Cup friendly in Morocco.
The match, played behind closed doors at the Complexe Sportif Moulay Rachid on Friday afternoon, provided Zambia with a valuable test ahead of the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which begins on 17 October.
Kanyemba said she made several changes to give more players exposure to high-level competition while assessing the team’s strengths and weaknesses ahead of the tournament.
“We made a lot of changes to give many of our players exposure to high-level football and see how they would respond. This has now enabled us to identify our weaknesses,” Kanyemba said.
The coach highlighted a lack of confidence when in possession and lapses during defensive transitions as key areas requiring attention before Zambia begin their World Cup campaign.
“We need to work on our girls. Most of the time when we had the ball in possession, our girls were hiding, which shows we need to build confidence in our girls and improve our transition in defence because we created lapses which allowed our opponents to attack,” she said.
Despite the defeat, Kanyemba believes the encounter will help prepare her players for the challenges awaiting them at the tournament, with Japan their first opponents in Group D.
China’s experience against Japan could also offer Zambia useful insight into the level of opposition they will face in their opening fixture.
“This was a good test because they now know what is at stake. They will be able to perform against Japan because China has been facing Japan. There is no difference between this game and our opener against Japan,” Kanyemba added.
The Copper Princesses will open their World Cup campaign against Japan on 18 October before facing Venezuela on 21 October. They will conclude their Group D fixtures against France on 24 October.
The tournament, which runs until 7 November in Morocco, will feature 24 teams, with five African nations participating, including the hosts.
For Kanyemba and her technical bench, the focus will now be on addressing the shortcomings exposed against China as Zambia put the finishing touches to their preparations for the global showpiece.
