Former Zambia Women’s National Team head coach Albert Kachinga has urged the Copper Queens to correct their mistakes as they face Germany in the ongoing Olympics tournament.
The Copper Queens face Germany in their final Group B match tomorrow in St. Etienne. Although their chances of making it to the quarterfinals are slim after losing 3-0 and 6-5 to the United States and Australia, they can qualify if they beat Germany by at least 2-0.
Kachinga coached the Copper Queens from 2014 to 2018 before being replaced by Bruce Mwape, who has led the team to three major global tournaments, including two Olympics (2021, 2024) and a World Cup (2023).
Before taking over the Copper Queens, he led the Barbra Banda-led U-17 Copper Princesses to the 2014 Costa Rica FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to become the first Zambian coach to achieve the feat with a women’s national team at any age level.
We need to tighten the tactical screws- Kachinga
Kachinga is impressed by the women’s national team’s massive improvement since his departure, but he believes the tactical approach to the games needs to be improved.
“First and foremost, I think there is a very tremendous improvement in our team because we have been able to qualify for these big tournaments, such as the World Cup and the Olympics,” he said in exclsuive interview with BolaNews. “Going forward, we need to look at how we approach these games, I think we have been lacking so much in the tactical aspect of how we approach the games.”
“Am pretty sure you heard what the Ghanaian coach said when we beat them in Ndola, and you also heard what the Moroccan coach said when we also beat them. I think we have been playing well, but I think we need to tighten the screws, especially in the tactical approach of the games. That’s where we are losing it when we face the big guns,” he added.
Kachinga warned the team not to dwell on past accomplishments and to take the Germany game seriously.
“Tomorrow we are playing Germany. We have beaten them before in an international friendly game, but that should not give us a leeway to say we are going to beat them. They are an easy team. I think we have learned one or two lessons from the two games that we have played. We need to take the game seriously and do a lot of damage control. We should also manage the game if we score two or more goals,” he Kachinga.
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