Zambia U20 coach Perry Mutapa has set his sights on winning the ongoing COSAFA Under-20 Championship, with qualification for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana the reward.
The Young Copper Bullets strengthened their position with a convincing 3-0 victory over Comoros on Monday, making it two wins from two matches in Group C.
Tumelo Mununga, Abel Salim Nyirongo and Kayula Chinunda were on target as Zambia secured another clean sheet and moved closer to their objective.
Zambia have now scored five goals without conceding in their opening two matches of the tournament.
Mutapa says the priority is to win the COSAFA tournament and secure a place at the continental showpiece, but believes the team’s ambitions must grow if they achieve that objective.
“The most important thing, the first one of course, is to qualify,” Mutapa said after the Comoros match.
“But when we qualify, the targets will change. We have to win it. We will be very happy when we qualify, but after qualifying the targets have to change and we would like to win the trophy.”
The COSAFA tournament is also providing an important platform for Mutapa to introduce a new generation of players to international football.
The coach revealed that the current squad is largely different from the team that represented Zambia at last year’s U20 Africa Cup of Nations, with only the goalkeeper remaining from that group.
“It is a tournament to introduce new faces to international football. It is not easy,” Mutapa said.
“Our first game, in the first half, we didn’t coordinate very well because most of the guys, it was their first test for international football.
“At half-time we had to treat them as Under-20s. We had to tell them to believe in themselves, which they did coming back in the second half.”
Mutapa believes the experience gained in the tournament will help Zambia build a deeper pool of players for future national teams.
“It was difficult for us, but we want to introduce the new guys to international football so that going forward we should have a pool of players to pick from,” he added.
With two wins from two, Zambia are now firmly focused on finishing the job in the COSAFA tournament.
