Zimbabwe Women’s National Team Coach Sithethelelwe Sibanda says they will not put themselves under pressure when they face off with a highly rated Zambia this afternoon as they just at the ongoing Three Nations Tournament to reintroduce themselves to the international stage.
Prior to their 2-1 win over Malawi on Friday, Zimbabwe last played a match in February while the Copper Queens have played 11 matches between February and now.
Sibanda says the most important thing for her team is seeing the improvements they have made and the rest will just follow afterwards.
“Well, I would say for us, it’s been a while since the team’s last match. It’s been a while since the team last played in a competitive match. So that match really gave the girls a good platform. And at the end of the day, the most important thing was that they were hungry to really be there in the international scene. So yeah, it was really good to really get to play an international match after such a long time.
And yeah, I think… For starters, it was a good show, here and there, one or two things to work on, but I’m quite happy with the start,” she said.
“Above all, like I alluded to, firstly was that we are facing two teams that have been very active, especially in the FIFA windows. They have played more games than us, obviously that puts them ahead. We probably, maybe I would say, taking the, what do you call it, probably in terms of matches played, we are the lowest. They’ve played a lot, they’ve played in all the FIFA friendlies. So obviously, yeah, we’re expecting to see a good match, which we saw. But again, going to our last match with Zambia, we are not going to see a good match. We are not going to put ourselves under a lot of pressure. Our focus really at the end of the day was to really reintroduce ourselves into the international scene.”
“Because obviously, if you go nine months without playing, you will tell yourself you want to reintroduce yourself into the international scene. So yeah, that’s the main objective really, for the girls to get that exposure. Try to implement what we try to work on. And at the end of the day, hope that whatever we are trying will come through. Seeing any percentage of improvement from the girls is actually very important. Otherwise, the rest that follows will be part of the game,” she added.
Zimbabwe beat Malawi 2-1 as Ethel Chinyerere stole the show scoring a first half brace as the Mighty Warriors stunned the hosts in front of the home crowd. Faith Chimzimu scored the consolation for the Scorchers.
Sibanda feels her team was motivated and eager to get the exposure against Malawi hence the performance.
Against the Copper Queens she wants her team to improve on the mistakes they made and maintain the positives they had on Friday.
“I would say, you see, two things in football. At times, when you stay for a long time without playing, when you get that chance, you want to utilize it to the best of your ability. So I guess it was just the spirit of saying, we’ve not been there. Let’s really try to utilize this opportunity to the best of our abilities. So I think they were just motivated, really, to play, to get that exposure. At the end of the day, I think it was all about them. The application was a bit better in terms of our game plan, the way we set out to play, really. They tried to really follow the game plan. And at the end of the day, we managed to come out. We came out victorious. But like I said earlier on, it was a bonus that we came out victorious. But the most important thing was to see where we are, how best can we improve among the best in the southern region,” she said.
“Maybe let me let me say as we walk as we work we’ll see what really tactical approach to to to employ into the game and we are just taking this game against zambia is a a totally new game all together but obviously we just need to maintain the positives that we have and try to improve what we struggled on this on the Malawi game and i guess our our final preparation or even on the team talks and analysis we’ll really try to to rectify that and we see how we approach the game.”
“Yeah, at the end of the day, you know, players, the thing is, whether you are playing in Qatar or you are playing wherever, it’s the pitch. The pitch has two goals with two teams playing. At the end of the day, I think they just love the atmosphere. Yeah, like I said, they are just motivated to play after a long time. That’s the most important thing that is driving us. with today,” she added.
Zambia and Zimbabwe meet this afternoon in the final match of the Three Nations Tournament at Bingu National Stadium. Kickoff is at 15:00 (CAT).
