Zambia: Football Association of Zambia welcomes their week’s column, which comes at the heart of key moments in the game. Yesterday, FAZ had a sendoff match for the FIFA World Cup-bound Copper Queens at Woodlands Stadium.
The team were privileged to have the Republican Vice President, W.K Mutale Nalumango, taking the front seat, cheering their girls. It was not the first time as she had also hosted the team at Government House for a sendoff luncheon. They said they could not think of anything more motivating and assuring for our team as they leave for the international camp in Germany.
We always wanted to allow the fans to see the team before leaving for the camp. The fans have been an integral part of this journey, and they did show their support in grand style at Woodlands Stadium. The focus will now shift to Germany, where they play three international friendly matches against FIFA World Cup-bound teams, said FAZ.
On June 22, they are in Dublin to face the Republic of Ireland, while a week later, they will be in Zurich, where they are up against Switzerland. Their final test will be against Germany in Furth on July 7 before heading to New Zealand for the final tournament.
From where they stand, they have yet to leave any stone unturned in ensuring that the team will be at the tournament having received the best possible preparations. We have also reinforced the technical bench with a Technical Advisor, Physical Trainer, video analyst and nutritionist to ensure their needs are roundly attended to.
Back home, the Chipolopolo this Saturday have a monumental fixture against Ivory Coast in the quest for AFCON qualification.
The team has had a weeklong retreat-like camp in South Africa on the recommendation of the technical bench. Part of the motivation for the choice of the centre was the ease for foreign-based players coming from their bases to join without distractions.
It has worked perfectly well as almost everyone reported on day one of the camps and has been focused on the job at hand. As of today, only one player will join directly in Ndola, while the newly naturalized Aime Mabika remains a doubt for this match as he gets out of the way on some personal matters.
Our appeal to the fans is to turn up in numbers and support our boys to get the required result. Undoubtedly, the technical bench and the team are up to the task. Let us fill up Levy Mwanawasa Stadium as we did against Lesotho.