Zambia U-17 Women’s National Team head coach Carol Kanyemba has said her players are fully psyched and conditioned ahead of this evening’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Round of 16 clash against Canada in Morocco.
Following an emphatic 4-0 victory over New Zealand in their final Group F match, the Copper Princesses booked their place in the knockout stage for the first time in history. Kanyemba, however, insists that her side has moved past that win and is focused on the new challenge ahead.
“We had three days of recovery and regeneration. The game against New Zealand was very intense, and the girls gave it their all,” Kanyemba said. “We’ve had light training on the first day, then focused on how we can counter Canada. It’s a good, well-structured team that can get physical at times — as we saw in their match against Nigeria.”
The coach added that her technical team has done extensive analysis to identify Canada’s weaknesses and prepare her players mentally to avoid complacency.
“Every team has its weaknesses. We’ve been working on how we can capitalize on theirs. We’ve also been psyching the girls not to ride on the win against New Zealand — that game is behind us. The challenge ahead is different, and we need to face it with the right attitude,” she explained.
Kanyemba stressed the importance of confidence and collective belief as her young side aims to continue their historic run.
“We shouldn’t look down on ourselves. We must believe in our abilities as a team and give it our all. Once we do that, we expect a good result,” she said.
The highly anticipated Round of 16 tie between Zambia and Canada kicks off at 21:00 CAT.
Zambia remains Africa’s only representative at the tournament following the elimination of Nigeria and Morocco on Tuesday. Nigeria lost 4-0 to Italy while the hosts were thrashed 6-1 by North Korea.
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