Zanaco Ladies FC coach Florence Mwila will be in charge of the Zambia Women’s National Team at the 2024 Cosafa Women’s Championship.
Mwila, who is the assistant coach to Bruce Mwape, has named a 34-member provisional squad for the competition, which kicks off from October 22-November 2 in Gqeberha, South Africa.
The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has said the decision to hand the team to Mwila is “part of empowering the womenfolk,” which “COSAFA encourages teams to assign female coaches for women competitions.”
Mwila also led the team during last year’s Cosafa tournament, where they finished second after losing to Malawi in the final. She will be assisted by ZISD Women’s coach Enala Simbeye and her ZESCO Ndola Girls’ William Zulu.
The 34-member squad is entirely composed of local players, with only seven players from the Paris 2024 Olympics squad remaining for the 14-team tournament.
Defender Margaret Belemu has returned to the team after missing the Paris Olympics along with Evarine Katongo, who was injured prior to the summer games.
Meanwhile, the draw for the group stage has already taken place, and Zambia has been drawn into Group D alongside Angola and Comoros.
Mwila reacts to the draw
Reacting to the draw, Mwila finds it interesting, especially since they have been pitted against the same team as last year.
“Very interesting draws because both Angola and Comoros were in our group last year, and obviously we carried the points,” she said in an interview. “But then we cannot still approach the games as we approached them last time because every team has been preparing and we saw how Angola really performed well during the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifiers. So we know that they have a strong side and we know that Comoros is also building towards making their team stronger.”
Mwila said they will use the Cosafa tournament to try and identify new players that’s why she handed debut call-ups to many girls.
“Our target is to go as far as we can go in the tournament this year. We are really looking at new players as well as we are preparing for the Wafcon. We have a lot of new players now; We are really looking at new players as well. I would say 90% of the team are new players. Some could have been called up to the national team, but they’ve never had game time. So we want to see our players being able to play at that level and see how their confidence levels are in order to beef up the copper queens. So winning the Cosafa will be a plus to our objective this year, which is player identification.”
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