The Zambia Women’s National Team will kick off their TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) 2024 (to be played in 2025) campaign on Saturday.
Nora Elizabeth Häuptle’s side will face off with the hosts Morocco in the opening match of the tournament.
The ZamFoot Crew now looks at the options that Coach Nora Elizabeth Häuptle has in different departments, with the goalkeeping area up first.
Häuptle decided to go with the experienced Ngambo Petronella Musole of Green Buffaloes Women’s Football Club and Red Arrows’ Catherine Musonda alongside youngster Mwila Mufunte.
Musole won the hearts of fans in her debut for the Copper Queens on 28th November, 2020 during an international friendly match between Chile and Zambia where she put up an excellent shift with good saves, and is the favorite to take up the place between the sticks.
From that match people dubbed her ‘The Darling Of Santiago’, the capital of Chile which hosted the friendly match which ended 2-1 in favour of The Copper Queens who came from a goal down with goals from Barbra Banda and Racheal Nachula enough to secure a historical victory while Karen Araya scored the only goal for La Roja Feminina.
A few months after the Chile friendly match, Musole went on to feature for the Copper Queens’ unfortunate 3-1 defeat at the hands of South Africa in another friendly match before she was a late inclusion in the Coach Bruce Mwape’s squad that qualified to the first ever Olympics 2020 Tokyo Olympics which were eventually rescheduled to 2021 as a result of the outbreak of Covid-19. Musole missed out on the 2022 Morocco WAFCON tournament.
Musole was part of the Zambia Women’s Under-17 National Team that qualified and competed at the 2014 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.
Musole however has competition from Red Arrows’ Catherine Musonda who is known for her outstanding reflexes and quick reactions. Her superpower however is her penalty-saving skills, an art she has perfected.
She made crucial saves in the historic win over Germany in Furth prior to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Häuptle however also has a wild card in Copper Princesses’ graduate Mwila Mufunte who has been impressive both at U17 and U20.
It’s unlikely she will start ahead of Musole and Musonda but the experience she will get from this tournament will be invaluable in her career progression.
The Copper Queens, drawn in Group A, will face hosts Morocco, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 2022 WAFCON bronze medallists will open their campaign with a fixture against the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco on 5 July at the Olympic Stadium in Rabat.
The penultimate match sees the Copper Queens take on Senegal on 9 July at El Bachir Stadium in Mohammédia, followed by their final Group A fixture against DR Congo at the same venue on 12 July.
Praying you humiliate Morocco tomorrow by 3 goals to 0. God bless you. It’s our time to get the cup