MULWANDA LUPIYA
Lusaka
LESOTHO 0 ZAMBIA 9
STRIKER Namute Chileshe, midfielders Pumulo Lubasi and Saliya Mwanza yesterday scored a brace as Zambia crushed Lesotho in the opening match at Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Under-20 Women Championship.
Hosts South Africa battered Mozambique 4-0 in a tournament being played on a round-robin format.
Botswana were on bye and will start the ball rolling against Mozambique in a lunch-time kick-off today while Zambia face South Africa.
“It was a good game, the girls played quite well, got goals and we are happy with the performance,” Zambia coach Charles Haalubono said in a post-match interview.
“Knowing it was a round-robin, we told them to take our chances and score as many goals as possible from those chances that we were going to create and I am happy they did just that.”
Haalubono’s charges started with real intent and pinned Lesotho.
Zambia turned their dominance into goals when Lubasi opened the floodgates with a quick brace.
Lubasi scored on 11 and 12 minutes at University of Johannesburg, Soweto Campus.
Two minutes later, Mwanza, who was named player-of-the-match, extended the lead before strikes from Chileshe and Mary Mbewe in the 28th and 37th minutes for Zambia to lead 5-0 at the interval.
Chileshe completed her brace in the 54th minute.
Haalubono made a triple change resting Blessings Maluba for Eunice Bwalya while Mbewe and Lydia Shamalima paved way for Edith Phiri and Zangose Zulu, respectively.
He withdrew Chileshe for Ruth Muwowo and Lubasi was replaced by Mary Mukupa on the hour mark.
Zambia continued pushing forward and Muwowo inked her name on the score-sheet with a double on 65 and 86 minutes.
Defender Jessy Mwale put the icing on the cake with an 89th minute effort.
Haalubono started with four players from the Under-17 side that participated at the FIFA World Cup in Dominican Republic last month and was happy with how they blended with their colleagues.
“The mix is good although tomorrow [today] we are playing against South Africa, so there is no time to work on our mistakes but it will be done verbally and maybe we need to coordinate more,” he said.
Maluba, Mwanza, Margaret Gondwe and Chileshe are among the ten players that have graduated.
“The game was okay and I knew even when I was on the bench that I will come on and score and I am happy to score a brace,” Muwowo said.
Mbewe said the team played according to instructions and was happy to find the back of the net.
She said Zambia is targeting to beat South Africa today to boost their chances of winning the championship.
Lesotho coach Elizabeth Yelimala said stage fright contributed to their downfall.
“Our biggest problem is the names of the teams we are playing. Our players heard that Zambia has gone to the World Cup Under-17, so that panic started in the first 20 minutes and you could see that some of the best players we have were not pulling up and that really cost us a number of goals. We have lost to one of the best in the competition, so in the remaining three games, we will come out fighting,” Yelimala said.
