Malawi begins Africa Schools’ qualifiers against hosts Zimbabwe

The Malawi Schools boys and girls Under-15 football teams are confident of doing well at the  Confederation of African Football (CAF) African Schools Football Championship Cosafa Qualifiers’ campaign as they have no pressure to meet any targets.

The boys’ coach Moses Chimbetete and the girls’ mentor Linda Kasenda said this in separate interviews as they begin their campaign this morning with a Group A fixture against hosts Zimbabwe at the Gateway Primary School in Harare.

Both the Malawi boys and girls’ teams will also face Botswana, e-Swatini and Mozambique in their respective groups with the side that will finish top qualifying for the final to face winners of Group B which has South Africa, Angola Zambia, Namibia and Madagascar.

Said Chimbetete: “We were not given targets for this competition as the main aim is to give the youngsters a platform to develop their talents. This, in turn, gives the players the freedom to express themselves on the pitch and based on what we have observed during training, we are confident of  doing well.”

On her part, Kasenda said she is hopeful the talent in her squad will make up for the short camping period ahead.

“We have been in camp for at least five days, but the gelling and coordination among the players has been amazing. We are ready to make Malawi proud,” she said.

The boys’ squad has 20 players, including four that helped Salima Secondary School team to win bronze at the inaugural tournament in South Africa in April this year.

The four are  goalkeeper Chisomo Mdoka, defenders James Lumbe and James Msongole and striker Ishmail Bwanali, who was the previous qualifiers’ golden boot winner with five goals. The girls side has 15 players.

According to Cosafa website www.cosafa.com, 20 games will be played on the opening day with 20 more scheduled for Friday when the group phase will come to a close.

The boys’ competition will be played on full size pitches with 11-a-side while the girls’ tournament will be played on half-sized pitches and is eight-a-side. In both competitions, matches will be played  20 minutes each half with a 10-minute half-time break.