Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says it is engaging the Malawi National Council of Sports on filling the vacant post of Flames coach.
The association’s president Fleetwood Haiya said this after the Malawi National Football Team beat Burkina Faso 3-0 at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe to mark the end of their TotalEnergies 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification campaign.
“We are currently consulting Sports Council on the matter before Senegal 4-0 and 0-1.
Some of the players the Zimbabwean tactician recalled were Mozambique-based striker Richard Mbulu, South Africa-based Frank Gabadinho Mhango and Charles Petro, who is based in Romania.
Mhango and Mbulu were on target in the match against Burkina Faso while Petro was solid at the back.
Commenting on the team’s performance in the two matches, Pasuwa said he did not do much except to give the players confidence.
He said: “Truly speaking, you can’t just talk about us having done much in these five days that we were in in charge of the team.
“Maybe it was also playing with the mental aspect of the players and you saw the way they fought for us.
“I can’t talk of anything to say we’ve changed a lot within these few days that we had. We trained only two days.
“Maybe the difference can be that most of these guys came with confidence to say they can win.”
The former Zimbabwe National Football Team and Dynamos FC coach said the senior players he recalled played a big role in restoring confidence in the team.
“We talked to some of the senior guys in the team to say let’s help each other for us to pull up results; hence, that’s why the boys did very well. The way they played was very solid,” he said.
Pasuwa added that his tactics of closing down the opponents when off the ball, gave the visitors no space.
“Most of the time we were catching them on the break. They were leaving so many holes. They also dominated possession at times, but again, the moment we lost the ball, we were coming back, trying to force them to play in the flanks,” he said.
Pasuwa said unlike in previous qualifiers where Malawi was wasteful in front of goal, the Flames utilised all scoring opportunities by burying their three shots on target.
The FCB Nyasa Bullets tactician’s success has prompted calls from some quarters for Football Association of Malawi to offer him a permanent job.
Football analyst Charles Nyirenda in an interview urged FAM to give the coach more time.
He said: “Malawi lost in four qualifiers. Despite calls for the former coach to consider senior players, we still saw experienced players being sidelined.
“Pasuwa, with the same players who were regarded as surplus to requirement, has managed to beat Burkina Faso for the first time. I think it’s only fair to give the interim coach more time.”
