AWCON EXIT SADDENS COACH
ZAMBIA National Women’s Team coach Bruce Mwape has expressed disappointment at Shepolopolos’ elimination from the ongoing Total 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) after drawing their last group fixture against South Africa.
The ‘Copper Queens’ who needed to beat South Africa to stand a chance of reaching the semis, were eliminated being held to a 1-1 stalemate in their last group B fixture by Banyana Banyana.
Failure to reach the last four after finishing group B with four points collected from the 5-0 thumping of Equatorial Guin-ea and a stalemate against South Africa saddened Mwape who was seeking to make history with the team by reaching the semifinals.
Mwape said that the absence of Captain Babra Banda who features for a Spanish club in Europe affected the team negatively. He noted that Banda who did not play any game at the tournament due to an injury, would have helped the team posi-tively because she has a lot of experience.
“Barbra Banda is one of our best strikers in the country it is unfortunate that she didn’t play, we missed her a lot and the other guys who were supposed to take over from her were a bit jittery.
“Barbra has a lot of experience, she has played a lot of games and I believe there could have been a change if she had the opportunity to play,” Mwape said. He noted that the tournament being held in Ghana presented his girls who lost 4-0 to Nigeria, a lot of lessons which would be used in future assignments.
Mwape said that the Shepolopolo would in three or four years’ time mature to challenge teams regarded as big teams on the African continent. “The group stage has given a lot off learning moments for our players especially that it was the first time for most of our players and I’m sure in two or three years from now they will mature to challenge these other big teams.
“Looking at all the team which came here there is no team which came here just to participate, all the teams where fighting to get to the world cup. As a team we are very disappointed because our aim was to qualify for the world cup and possibly fight for the Africa cup,” Mwape said.