Flames coach Kalisto Pasuwa has said the team’s late arrival in Bloemfontein, South Africa, for Saturday’s friendly against Lesotho’s Likuena partly affected the team’s performance.
The match, played at Toyota Stadium, ended goalless.
“Considering the fact that we arrived this morning, some of the boys’ legs were not okay. We arrived early in the morning today [Saturday], but we did well [under the circumstances],” he said.
The Malawi National Football Team arrived on the eve of the game in Johannesburg from where they drove to Bloemfontein at around midnight, arriving at their destination at around 3.30am on the day of the match.
Despite Football Association of Malawi requesting the hosts to consider shifting the match to 7pm, the Lesotho Football Association only delayed the kick-off by 30 minutes.
Nevertheless, Pasuwa said he was satisfied with the Flames’ performance.
He said: “We are failing to score, but remember we are building a team. It is a process, but we will get there.
“Today, the boys were well prepared unlike when we played Sao Tome and Principe because it was clear that they underrated them, it was like we had already won and some players even went swimming.”
The Flames started fashioned a number of chances, but were flat for the better part of the game.
Responding to a question on comments from some quarters that he took time to make substitutiions, the Zimbabwean said: “Substitutions are done if there is a problem or if we want to make a tactical change and not just to please someone out there.”
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka could not be reached to comment on why the team did not leave earlier to give the players ample time to rest.
