Mabedi rues missed penalty
Flames coach Patrick ‘General’ Mabedi believes that had Malawi scored their penalty against Kenya in the Four Nations Tournament on Saturday, the result would have been different.
The Flames suffered a 4-0 humiliation in front of their fans at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
Malawi were awarded a penalty in the second half for a foul in the box as they trailed 2-0 and up stepped holding midfielder Lloyd Aaron whose soft spot-kick was easily kept out by Kenya goalkeeper Patrick Matasi.
In a post-match interview, the Flames gaffer said: “Had we scored that penalty, it could have changed the whole complexion of the match.
“[The miss] demoralised the players.”
He also said his charges “let in silly goals” that could have been easily avoided.
Said the coach: “In my opinion, we gave them the goals. They never worked for them.”
Mabedi also described the result as “embarrassing”, saying his troops “did not turn up for the party”.
He said: “We only had one shot at goal and there is no way we could have won the game.”
Nevertheless, the former Flames skipper said there were some positives drawn from the match.
He said: “As I said, to me the objective was to try some new players and see if they can fit in our system.
“It was also about trying different combinations, so the match gave us an idea on the way forward.”
On his part, former Flames coach Kinnah Phiri, who watched the match, said his take from the match was that there is no clear direction.
He said: “The result was painful. At least when you lose 1-0, 2-0 you get a benefit of the doubt, but not such a wide margin.
“It was a wake-up call and I should applaud FAM [Football Association of Malawi] for organising the tournament because it has given us a true picture of where we stand.
“Things are not OK. We keep on experimenting, a clear indication that we don’t have an idea of what we want.”
The Flames’ all-time leading scorer said the team’s performance at last year’s Cosafa Cup gave the nation false hopes.
On the other hand, football analyst Kevin Moyo said the Flames were tactically poor.
“The other teams also had a number of debutants, but they put up decent displays,” he said.
