Ascent upbeat
Ascent Soccer Academy are confident of reaching the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women’s Champions League Cosafa qualifiers semi-finals when they face Botswana’s Gaborone United in a must-win last Group B match today.
The hosts blew a chance of making the last four with a match to spare at Mpira Stadium in Blantyre following a 1-0 defeat to UD de Lichinga of Mozambique.
But in an interview yesterday, Ascent coach Thom Mkolongo was upbeat of giving the home-crowd fans a smile.
“In the next game, we will come back quite well and we will make it. We will qualify for the semi-finals, believe me,” he said.
Nevertheless, Mkolongo said he will not put his charges under pressure to produce the desired results because, being their first appearance in a continental club championship and having a team with average age of 18, they are still in football development stages.
“If we put pressure on them, they will not perform to their best potential. However, we will work hard on our shortfalls, which include failure to convert scoring chances and being slow on the attack,” he said.
Currently, Ascent are second in their group with three points following a 2-1win over E-swatini’s Young Buffaloes in their opener. They are a point behind leaders Lichinga and a point ahead of third-placed Young Buffaloes. Gaborone anchor the table with a point.
A win this afternoon will see the Lilongwe-based outfit in the group’s top two teams from the group, which is a qualification standard for the semis.
Ascent captain Mirriam Mnenula said they will do their best to avoid making mistakes that resulted in their recent defeat.
“After that painful loss, we looked at our overall performance and we noted that we could have done better. We want to go far in this competition,” she said.
Scorchers assistant coach and former captain Maggie Chombo-Sadik yesterday said Ascent can reach the semi-finals, but they have to improve on attacking machinery and tighten up their defence.
She said: “They have very good players, who are able to initiate offensive attacks. However, they are not good at making follow ups. When the likes of Mnenula get the ball in the box, other players are far apart, making it difficult to make finishes on the rebound.
“It is also important that they tighten their defence, which at times, tends to be disorganised. Their two central defenders should be communicating to avoid collisions and should be fast on the ball.”
Before Ascent take on Gaborone this afternoon, Young Buffaloes face Lichinga in another Group B clash.
Group A has Zimbabwe’s Herentals, South Africa’s University of Western Cape, Green Buffaloes Women of Zambia and Namibian outfit Ongos FC.
Top-two teams from Group A and B will sail through to this Thursday’s semi-finals.
The final is scheduled for this Saturday with the eventual winner qualifying for the CAF Women’s Champions League finals along with the defending champions South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns Women.
Egypt is expected to host this year’s competion again.
