Zambia: Football Association of Zambia welcomes their week’s column; FAZ gave Sporty salutations to the football family. It is an exciting season for the game, with Copper Queens stepping into the world cup battle zone in New Zealand after concluding their month-long camp in Europe.
The Copper Queens signed off their international camp in style with a 3-2 win over second-ranked Germany in Furth. While they always remember to remind themselves that results in friendly matches are not the most important thing, they were quite excited to see the Copper Queens take on the two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champions punch for punch.
We insisted the Copper Queens play high-profile matches to test them against the best teams on the globe. No team across the 32 bound for the world cup has played as many top-level matches as the Copper Queens, said the President of FAZ.
Furthermore, FAZ asserted, “Our catalogue of matches started with Colombia (two matches), North Macedonia, Slovenia, Uzbekist FAZ an, South Korea (two matches), Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, and Germany. We spared no effort in organizing quality-friendly matches to help the team prepare.”
In tying up all the loose ends, we did re-enforce the technical bench with a technical advisor (Lisa Cole), a physical trainer (Janie Lawrence), a video analyst and a nutritionist. We believe that the Copper Queens will be a worthy representative of our country and the African continent, added .
For the record, Zambia is in Group C alongside Japan, Spain and Costa Rica, with the opening match on July 22 against the 2011 champions at Waikato Stadium. The second game will be against Spain at Eden Park on July 26 before the final match four days later against Costa Rica at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.
Away from the women’s game, the local assemblage of the Chipolopolo is in Malawi, participating in the 2023 Cosafa Cup, which it won in 2022. Under the tutelage of an all-local ensemble of coaches, the team is part of our efforts to give indigenous personnel an opportunity to test their skills. The team has so far lost one game and won another, with their progress down to the final match on Wednesday.
It is good that some players that have not yet made the senior men’s national team cut are getting some action as they will be part of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier set for this month-end. Platforms like the Cosafa are about winning and ensuring that the nation builds a pool of players that will eventually step into the senior men’s team. We can only wish our team all the best on their Cosafa mission.