By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe –
THE Zambia Under-20 soccer team today begins its quest to claim the COSAFA Youth Championship title when they take on Lesotho with coach Hector Chilombo targeting maximum points to start the campaign on a high.
The team that left Lusaka yesterday morning arrived in Bulawayo late in the evening for the COSAFA tournament that is being organised under the African Union Sports Commission (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games that starts today and ends on December 14.
The matches in the men’s competition will be played over 10 days, culminating in the final at Bulawayo’s Barbourfields Stadium on December 14.
Zambia is in Group B with defending champions South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia while Seychelles withdrew. South Africa, led by current Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim ‘Shakes’ Mashaba, won the 2012 edition in Lusaka after beating Zambia 2-1 at Nkoloma Stadium.
Group A has hosts Zimbabwe as top seeds, Mozambique, Swaziland, Angola and Malawi in what is likely to be a hotly contested pool. The top two
teams in each pool advance to the semi-finals, which will be played on December 12.
Zambia takes on Lesotho at the Luveve Stadium and Chilombo will be hoping his boys fight off the fatigue before facing the tiny mountainous nation.
Having already qualified for the Senegal 2015 Africa Youth Championship, Chilombo will be, apart from using this tournament as part of preparations, also be eyeing to win the title.
Chilombo has picked a squad comprising some old and new faces in the team with the likes of Paston Daka elevated from the junior side owing his impressive prowess in-front of goal.
Others in the team include experienced Mangani Banda, Boyd Mkandawire, Samson Banda, Patrick Ngoma and Moses Phiri whom Chilombo will be banking on to inspire the team to victory.
“I think we have prepared well and the confidence in the team is high with everyone looking forward to the match. Our target is to get the six points from the two games to earn us qualification,” he said.
Zambia will tomorrow take on Namibia in a 14:00 hours kick off at the Luveve Stadium before playing South Africa in the final fixture on Sunday at the Barbourfields Stadium in a 16:30 hours kick-off.
Meanwhile, the Zambian team head into their opening match against the background of being disowned by FAZ who said they had nothing to do with the team.
This was after former Under-20 manager Daniel Jere and some other officials submitted a list to Ministry of Sport which was not approved by FAZ and it contained names of players who were not involved in the qualifiers.
FAZ executive committee member Lee Kawanu said the association wanted to use the competition as part of preparations for the Africa Junior and Youth Championships by fusing in Under-17 and 20 players.