Zambia Under 17 National Women’s Team Coach Kaluba Kangwa described the just-ended Cosafa Under 17 Women’s Championship that was hosted in Mauritius as Educative and Interesting for him and the girls.
Kangwa also applauded the Organization of the Tournament as well as the nation’s that took part.
“It was very educative and very interesting, am so happy for our girls at least they got something but what’s more important is to see the developmental part, I could see the endurance levels getting there and if they continue to play let’s say more than 5 games how can they react to such kind of pressure, so that’s what we need them to understand if they are playing in a tournament,” he said.
Speaking in an interview from Port Louis in Mauritius after his side edged the Young Mares of Botswana 3-nil to emerge as Bronze medalists, Kangwa said the tournament was a great stepping stone in the development of women’s football in the region and Africa at large.
“I think in all areas we need to continue learning, from the Coaching point of view we learned a lot from teams like Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Botswana, Uganda, and South Africa especially on the Organization of the Girls’ teams,” he said.
“It’s not easy to come up with a girls’ team so am happy for COSAFA for introducing the Under 17 tournament which is very important. If we want Women’s football to grow in Africa we need to start creating opportunities such as the COSAFA tournaments for Under 17, 20 and Senior team then we are going to see women’s football in this region developing,” he added.
Zambia edged Botswana 3-nil to mint Bronze while East African Guests Uganda edged South Africa 2-1 in an exciting finale to lift the Trophy at the first COSAFA U17 Girls Championship.
South African captain Jessica Wade was named Player of the Tournament while Uganda striker Juliet Nalukenge won the Golden Boot prize with an astonishing 18 goals scored in the five games with her teammate Daphine Nyayenga winning the Golden Glove.
