Zambia U-17 women’s national team coach Carol Kanyemba has admitted that the team may not perform better than in 2024 at the 2025 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco if they do not play high-profile friendly games to test their preparedness.
Last year, the Copper Princesses returned to the World Cup for the first time in ten years when they qualified for the Dominican Republic edition, where they were eliminated in the group stage after losing all three matches.
They suffered a 1-0 defeat to Brazil, a 2-0 loss to Poland, and a 4-1 defeat to Japan to finish bottom of Group D — results that were attributed to poor preparations.
With only 15 days before the tournament kicks off, Kanyemba hopes the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) will organize at least three friendlies for her team.
“We’ve just been training. So what we’re seeing is not what we can see when we play against the high profile team,” Kanyemba told journalists at the Reiz Arena on Tuesday in Lusaka. “So we’re looking forward to having international friendlies with two or three, so that we’ll be able to gauge the team.”
Zambia is in Group F alongside Japan, Paraguay, and New Zealand. They will open their campaign against Paraguay on 19 October.
‘We need to do something different’ – Kanyemba
Kanyemba, who has become the first female Zambian coach to qualify any national team for a FIFA World Cup, has set progression beyond the group stage as her primary target but emphasized the need for adequate preparations.
“This year, we’re going back with the local expectation. I have an aim to go past the group stage together with the girls, and that’s what we’re encouraging the girls to do. But I can say preparation is everything. We can be as confident as we are, but without high-profile friendly games, the first teams that we play at the World Cup will be like our friendlies, which won’t be good enough, and it won’t bring anything different.”
“Last year, we didn’t have any friendlies. If we lose on that, we don’t expect to have different results. So we need to do something different for us to be able to see different results.”
Meanwhile, BolaNews understands that FAZ is working to secure the friendlies as requested by Kanyemba and will communicate once the arrangements are finalized.
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