Malawi National Women’s Football team coach, Lovemore Fazili, said the team’s travel itinerary to Zambia ahead of the two matches scheduled for Saturday, 22 February and Tuesday, 25 February will not affect the team.
The initial plan was that the Scorchers were expected to fly to Lusaka, Zambia on Tuesday February 18, but managed only to send six players and two officials.
The second batch of players, five, and three officials landed in Lusaka on Wednesday afternoon. A final batch will fly out of Malawi this afternoon, including head coach Fazili.
This means the coach will only have tomorrow Thursday to train a full squad before taking on Zambia in their first friendly match on Saturday at REIZ Arena formerly Woodlands Stadium.
But Fazili says this will not affect the team: “It’s not a big deal. The most important thing is that we have a full squad. All the players we called into camp are available for selection. We are looking forward to the two matches.”
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) attributed Scorchers’ change of itinerary to a lack of space on the Lusaka route.
Meanwhile, the situation is different with their opponents who hit full gear in preparations, with all 28 players now in camp in Lusaka.
Yesterday coach Nora Häuptle welcomed the final batch of foreign-based players, completing her squad ahead of the two matches. The latest arrivals included USA-based duo Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji, Turkey-based Lushomo Mweemba and Martha Tembo, China-based Kabange Mupopo, and Israel-domiciled Racheal Nachula according to the Football Association of Zambia.
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