Copper Queens assistant coach Florence Mwila has declared her team ready for the 2024 COSAFA Women’s Championship.
Mwila believes the team has prepared adequately to compete at the tournament despite having a lot of new faces in the team.
Red Arrows defender Margaret Belemu has returned to the team and will captain the team. Mwilla is full of praise for the right back.
Mwila was also quick to mention that the team has set their targets on winning the tournament though the objective is mainly to identify players who can fit in the main team.
“The team is ready, the girls are ready. The morale is high, you can see how most of them are excited because it’s their first time to play at an International tournament, I can say 90 percent of the team are new players. They are ready to perform and everybody is doing well and from the training that we have given them, they will deliver,” Mwila said.
“She is one of the senior players in the team. She is fit in well and she has the leadership qualities. We have confidence in her. Everyone is fine, no injury concerns.”
“The main objective is to identify players who can fit in the main team but we can’t run away from the fact that we also have our eyes on the prize so we have prepared ourselves to reach that far in the tournament,” she added.
Skipper Margaret Belemu says the team is expecting a tough game against Angola because they have a bone to chew with the Copper Queens.
“Everyone should expect a good game from us as Copper Queens. As a team we expect a tough game against Angola who have a good team and they will come at us strongly because of the AWCON qualifiers where we knocked them out,” Belemu said.
The 2022 Champions will kick off their campaign tomorrow, Thursday, October 24 when they take on Angola in Group C at 12h00.
The Copper Queens will entertain Comoros five days later in Group C matches.
There are 14 teams at this year’s tournament spread across four groups and only group winners will advance to the semi-finals of the competition.
Two venues are being used in Gqeberha, including the iconic Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium which was built ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and remains among the best stadia in Africa.
