Kaluba names COSAFA U-17 women squad

MOSES MWANZA writes@SunZambianTHE Zambia U-17 Women’s national team head coach Kaluba Kangwa has declared his lasses ready for the 2020 COSAFA Women’s Champion-ship which will be staged in Port Elizabeth from November 4 – 16.Kaluba told the ZamFoot Crew in an interview after a training session, that he was happy with the fitness levels of the players and he and his technical team are now just working on the mental aspect.“The state of the team, we are happy with the fitness levels now and the girls are ready for the event. We are working on the final touches to make sure that the girls do not forget where we coming from what we’ve been doing and what we are doing now is to make sure that we prepare their mental aspect remember that our first game of course is against South Africa in the second game against Tanzania and the third game against Comoros and the last game is against Zimbabwe,” he said. “If you follow the sequence of the games, it tells you the magnitude that we are going to have from the first game to the third game or rather to the last game. We are going to have it very intensive as they are using the round-robin system, which we think was a fair decision from the leaders because of the number of teams.“I’m so proud that we can participate in this event. Remember main core value is for us to nature very good talent that can develop to the Under-20, to the senior team and I think this kind of intensity kind of games are going to help the girls to grow even more to understand the pressure surrounding the game and also to help the girls to understand what it takes to play at a tournament of this magnitude and how it can help their men-tal strength drop. Some of them will be preparing some International Arrangement where some of them I’m see-ing an opportunity for them to go and play abroad, I mean I brought so it is a plus for the girls,” he added.Kangwa told the ZamFoot Crew that he is targeting winning this year’s U-17 Women’s COSAFA Cup after coming out third last year.“The number of games you play at an event like this one makes you grow, This is our main target and we are proud of this,” he said.“Well, of course, our plans were affected a little bit because of the age groups that COSAFA are looking for now and we went back quickly to the drawing board. The good part about the programme is this project has got a lot of players in the database and we had to quickly make sure that everybody that is behind the A-team can respond accordingly and our plans are back on track, We are still aiming to make sure that we can bring the tro-phy back home, this is our target with the girls,” he added.The Copper Princesses will leave for the tournament venue, Port Elizabeth on Monday next week.Zambia will open its account on 4 November 2020 with a titanic clash against hosts South Africa before facing Tanzania 48 hours later.Kangwa’s lasses will then play Comoros on 10 November before concluding their outing with a game against Zimbabwe two days later. FINAL TEAM(GOALKEEPERS)Chitete Munsaka (Rockets), Musonda Catherine Daka (Lusaka Dynamos), Mirriam Sikaduli (Musport)(DEFENDERS)Martha Kitila Banda (Busa), Luty Kamanga, Judith Soko (both Yasa), Esther Sianfunko (Queens Academy), Nandhipa K Mkombe (Lusaka Queens), Comfort Selemani (Solwezi Academy)(MIDFIELDERS)Shelly Masumo, Esther Banda (both Busa), Bupe Banda (Football Chance), Beauty Zulu (Luyando Girls), Tionge Sambo (Progress)(STRIKERS)Esnart Mukumbwe (Linso Girls), Margaret Taonga Chulu (Busa), Tisilile Lungu (Kafue Celtic), Jackline Nambeya (Busa), Melisa Mataba (Yasa), Cindy Banda (Blessing) – ZAMFOOT The Sun