The Malawi under-20 national football team left for this year\u2019s Cosafa Youth Championship in Kitwe, Zambia, with Head Coach, Gerald Phiri Snr, picking a strong squad for the tournament.
\nThe junior Flames left the country through Chileka International Airport in Blantyre, three days before the competition kicks off.
\nPhiri, who is working under the guidance of senior national football team Head Coach, Ronny Van Geneudgen, has named three players from the FMB Under-20 Football league whereas 14 are from TNM Super League sides.
\nThree other players are from reserve sides of top flight teams.
\nGriffin Young Stars playmaker, Peter Banda, Clement Bingula of Masters Security under-20 team and Silver Strikers\u2019 Hadji Wali are products of the FMB Under-20 League.
\nWell-known Super League stars such as Mike Mkwate of Nyasa Big Bullets, Silver Strikers\u2019 Levison Maganizo and Gregory Nachipo of Blue Eagles are also part of the squad.
\nPhiri said he was confident the team would do well, having maintained 11 players that were part of the team during last year\u2019s campaign.
\n\u201cWe should do well this time because we have maintained some 11 players who gained experience from last year\u2019s tournament in South Africa. We learnt our lessons and we will do better,\u201d he said.
\nMalawi are in Group A alongside hosts Zambia, Swaziland and Uganda.
\nLast year, the team returned from the event empty-handed after losing all three preliminary games without scoring a goal.
\nThe full squad is as follows:
\nGoalkeepers: Charles Thom (Dwangwa United), Christopher Mikuwa (Blantyre United)
\nDefenders: Nixon Nyasulu (Bullets Reserves), Kondwani Mwaila (Silver Strikers), Ben Manyozo (Dwangwa United), Wali, Precious Sambani (Be Forward Wanderers), Kelvin Kadzinje, Sydney Chambulika, Charles Petro (Wizards)
\nMidfielders\/Strikers: Nachipo, Chimwemwe Idana (Bullets Reserves), Mike Mkwate, Patrick Phiri (Wizards), Banda, Maganizo, Ronald Pangani (Silver Strikers), Ernest Petro (Bullets), Bingula, Francisco Madinga (Wanderers)
\nGeneugden – Snr Team Coach
\nPhiri Snr – Head Coach
\nDe Klerk Msakakuona – Assistant Coach
\nPeter Mponda – Assistant Coach
\nPhillip Nyasulu – Goalkeeper Coach
\nGriffin Saenda jnr – Team Manager
\nChristopher Mwenegamba \u2013 Team Doctor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Malawi under-20 national football team left for this year\u2019s Cosafa Youth Championship in Kitwe, Zambia, with Head Coach, Gerald Phiri Snr, picking a strong squad for the tournament. The junior Flames left the country through Chileka International Airport in Blantyre, three days before the competition kicks off. Phiri, who is working under the guidance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57099,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57093\/revisions\/57099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}