Zambia Women’s National Team assistant Coach Florence Mwila says the goalless draw against Mozambique is not what they expected though they knew it would be a tough match.
The COSAFA Women’s Championship defending Champions opened their title defence with a disappointing scoreless draw.
Mwila who was speaking during a post match press conference said the team is being used to groom new players and also work on defending the trophy.
She feels every team will be coming prepared when playing against the Copper Queens.
“We knew that it wouldn’t be an easy one but not the result that we expected. We have about 15 new players and some of them are playing international football for the first time. In the first half we started on a low note, because of the confidence and they later came out of their shell,” she said.
“There is always pressure when you are defending Champions because everyone comes prepared for you.”
“Defending is a priority and grooming is another thing as well. Looking at the players we have now we are grooming for the future. We have future assignments like Olympic qualifiers, AFCON qualifiers etc so this is an opportunity to see other players. In case there are issues of injuries, we will know which players to fall back on,” she added.
Mwila was happy with the clean sheet despite the draw and she feels lessons have been learned to use for the coming games.
She was also quick to praise Leticia Lungu and the defence for keeping a clean sheet.
“The clean sheet is good, a point is better than a loss. Lessons learned, we know how to approach the next game in order for us to progress to the next round,” she said.
“They were okay, obviously at the start there was stage fright but their confidence has been boosted and won’t be the same in the next two games.”
“The defenders know their roles well. The goalkeeper was alert as well as alert, she was at the World Cup and even kept a clean sheet in Morocco I think boosted her confidence,” she added.
Mwila continued: There is no pressure of being Zambia, there is just pride because we were underdogs and now we are a force to reckon with, Proud to be Zambian. “
Zambia will play Angola in their second game on Saturday at 12h00 at the Dobsonville Stadium.
Angola beat Comoros 5-0 in their opening game to go top of group B.
