{"id":69301,"date":"2018-09-12T10:54:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T08:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=69301"},"modified":"2018-09-12T10:54:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T08:54:33","slug":"malawi-kick-off-cosafa-tourney-against-botswana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/09\/12\/malawi-kick-off-cosafa-tourney-against-botswana\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi kick off Cosafa tourney against Botswana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Mabvuto Kambuwe, In Port Elizabeth, RSA:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_69305\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69305\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/malawi-she-flames.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-69305\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/malawi-she-flames-300x236.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/malawi-she-flames-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/malawi-she-flames-45x35.jpg 45w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/malawi-she-flames.jpg 464w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-69305\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">RARING TO GO\u2014Malawi\u2019s She-Flames<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Malawi women\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.times.mw\/kwese-tv-to-beam-she-flames\/\">national football team<\/a> steps onto the turf of Wolfsohn Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, this morning with a mission to get the Cosafa Women\u2019s Cup Championship campaign off to a flying start against the She- Zebras of Botswana.<\/p>\n<p>Kicking off the tournament with a Zebra braai would be a perfect way of boosting the She-Flames\u2019 confidence for their matches against Madagascar and hosts South Africa, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The wild animal is certainly a delicacy for those in love with bush meat and Coach Maggie Chombo-Sadiki would find it difficult to resist the temptation of leading her charges into roasting its choicest grade stake.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting against a less-fancied Botswana side appears to be a walkover on paper for the She-Flames but it could be a tough match on the ground as the Zebras have just been in camp for one week.<\/p>\n<p>Since they started participating in the competition, Malawi have never gone past the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>Chombo-Sadiki has a squad that will miss the goal scoring services of influential Captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.times.mw\/tabitha-chawinga-ranked-29th-out-of-100-women-footballers\/\">Tabitha Chawinga<\/a> and Sweden-based duo of Sabin Thom and Temwa Chawinga after their clubs refused to release them on the grounds that the tournament falls outside the Fifa calendar.<\/p>\n<p>In the absence of the trio, the She-Flames mentor is banking her hopes on veteran striker Linda Kasenda and midfielder Bridget Mkuzilire.<\/p>\n<p>Madina Ngulube and Joy Bongowongo could also fill the void created by the three top stars.<\/p>\n<p>Options at the back include Maureen Phiri, Patricia Nyirenda, Ruth Nyirongo and Fatsireni Kazembe whereas Martha Banda or Mercy Sikelo will fight for a starting place in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Chombo-Sadik said her charges were going to the event to compete and not just participate.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cOur aim is to go past the group stage and hopefully do better than last year. We have a good crop of players. I believe in them,\u2019\u2019<\/em> she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Botswana have travelled to the tournament with a 20-member squad which includes Patricia Motigwa, Masego Nfandiso, Lesego Keleboge and Masego Montsho.<\/p>\n<p>The She-Zebras Coach, Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang, is also hoping for a perfect start against the She-Flames.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mabvuto Kambuwe, In Port Elizabeth, RSA: The Malawi women\u2019s national football team steps onto the turf of Wolfsohn Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, this morning with a mission to get the Cosafa Women\u2019s Cup Championship campaign off to a flying start against the She- Zebras of Botswana. Kicking off the tournament with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69301","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\/69301","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=69301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69306,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69301\/revisions\/69306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}