The Zambia Under-17 national team will this afternoon kick off their campaign in the Region 5 Games Maseru 2020 with a tricky encounter against hosts, Lesotho.
The Young Bullets came out second at COSAFA Youth Championship last year and are hoping to clinch gold this time around.
Janza Academy striker Kelvin Phiri who is expected to lead the attack together with Marcel Zimba from Athletico Lusaka is confident the team will reclaim the trophy they last won in 2019 under the guidance of Oswald Mutapa.
“I think so far so good. Our expectations are very high, we expect to play the final. It’s not easy we have been pushing,” Kelvin Phiri said.
” Our main target is to get the Cup. Our message to the fans is that we will bring it home.”
Midfielder Aaron Mbemba Kawangu also reiterated the words of Kelvin Phiri saying the team is aiming for gold this time around after finishing second last year.
“We have very high hopes of coming out victorious. Having played the final last year we aim to play the final again but this time we don’t want to aim for Silver now we want to aim for Gold,” he said.
“We will do our best for them, We will do our level best to make them happy,” he added.
Skipper Joseph Sabobo Banda is expected to lead the hunt for glory. Sabobo was the top goalscorer at the 2020 COSAFA U-17 Championship.
Eric Musonda Makungu, Lyson Banda, Ricky Chanda, Aaron Mbemba Kawangu and Sejanji Siame are expected to make up the back five.
Sabobo is expected to be joined by Frank Chileshe, Edward Mwale, and Emmauel Katenga in the creative department as Marcel Zimba and Kelvin Phiri look to lead the line.
The kick-off-off is at 15:30hours and the match will be live on Cosafa.tv. Zambia’s next match will be against Eswatini on Saturday at 15:30hours.
