Prior to the Dominican Republic’s 2024 U17 World Cup, Albert Kachinga, a former coach of Zambia’s U-17 Women’s National Team, has voiced concerns about the Copper Princesses’ lack of friendly games.
The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup kicks off today. Carol Kanyemba’s side is in Group D and will open their campaign against Brazil on Friday. The other two teams in the group are Japan and debutants Poland.
Kachinga led the team during the 2014 edition in Costa Rica, which produced the likes of Hazel Nali, Barbra Banda, Grace Chanda, Martha Tembo, and Margaret Belemu, among other standout players.
He stated that the team needed to prepare adequately and added that the technical bench should now just psyche the players so that they would be psychologically prepared to play the opening game against Brazil.
“I only hoped the preparation was on point because really playing Brazil—those are big girls in soccer—it will be a mammoth task, but I think we can hold our own looking at how we played in the qualifiers; I think that can also give us some hope,” Kachinga told BolaNews in an interview.
“Lack of friendly matches will give us a disadvantage; we needed to prepare in those lines, but again, what is important is the preparation itself; apart from playing training games the way you psyche the team, I think it can help.”
Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga said the team had closed-door engagements in Santiago and will be ready for the tournament.
“The under-17 women’s national team kick off their FIFA World Cup campaign on Friday against Brazil in Santo Domingo. The team was camped in Santiago before heading to their tournament base on Sunday. The team had some closed-door engagements as part of preparation for the tournament,” Kamanga wrote on Monday in his weekly President’s Corner column published on the FAZ Facebook Page.
‘Study your opponents’- Kachinga tips Kanyemba
Kachinga has advised the Kanyemba-led technical bench to research how their opponents are likely to set up.
“What is important is for the technical staff to go behind the scenes and see how Brazil played in the qualifiers so that they can have an idea of how they can prepare the team.
“It is very good to the girls and the team, the nation at large, because if you remember the current senior national women’s team, that’s the team that played Costa Rica 2014….. So I can only hope we can mold these girls and try to bring them up. There will be a time when we won’t have Barbra [Banda], so these are girls who will take up the mantle, so they need to try to hold and go all the way.”
The match between Zambia and Brazil will take place at the Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez in Santo Domingo on Friday at 1:00 a.m. Central African time.
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