Scorchers coach Lovemore Fazili says the planned two international friendly matches against Zambia’s Copper Queens on February 20 and 23 are an opportunity for his charges to keep up with their oppo-nents in CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon).
Malawi has qualified for the competition’s second round without kicking a ball after their opponents, Congo Brazzaville, pulled out.
The development meant Malawi would be idle as other participants are playing their qualifiers on the Fifa international window which falls between February 20 and 26.
However, Football Association of malawi (FAM) has stepped in to organise the two strength testing matches.
Fazili said the two friendlies against Zambia will enable the players shake-off off-season lethargy ahead of the second round where they will meet the winner between Angola and Zimbabwe.
He said: “It’s very important that these two friendly matches are coming at the right time. These two games are important because what we are looking for is our strengths and our weaknesses. We have to at least test ourselves.”
The Scorchers were last active in November when they failed to defend the Cosafa Women’s Champi-onship in South Africa.
The team was knocked out in the semis by eventual champions Zambia.
Said Fazili: “We observed a lot of challenges during the Cosafa Championship, especially at the back where the defence and the goalkeeping had some weaknesses. Generally, we are supposed to improve in all areas.”
He said while avenging the semi-finals loss to Zambia would be sweet, they need also to look at the bigger picture in terms of the development of the team.
Said Fazili: “Winning is something that is priority. But at the same time, we have to look at how the team is developing. We need to see the coordination. All in all, we want to build a better team, a better future team for Scorchers and the other games which are ahead of us.”
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the association is confident that two friendlies will give the technical panel a chance to prepare for the second round.
He said: “Our wish is to ensure that we utilises all international Fifa windows for women’s football. That is why when we found out that Scorchers will not be playing this coming window after Congo withdrew from the competition, we immediately organised these two friendly matches against Zambia’s Copper Queens.”
The Wafcon qualifiers will feature two rounds of competition. In the first round, the 32 teams ranked seventh and below will play home-and-away ties.
The 16 winners will advance to the second round where they will be joined by the six teams that were on bye.
The winners of the 11 second round home-and-away ties will qualify for the final tournament in Morocco.
