{"id":71157,"date":"2018-11-01T06:19:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T04:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=71157"},"modified":"2018-11-01T06:19:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T04:19:28","slug":"malawi-under-20-in-zambias-group-at-cosafa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/11\/01\/malawi-under-20-in-zambias-group-at-cosafa\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi Under-20 in Zambia\u2019s group at Cosafa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mabvuto Kambuwe: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
UNDER PRESSURE\u2014Fazili<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Malawi under-20 national football team has been handed a relatively tough draw at the 2018 Cosafa Youth Championship slated for Kitwe, Zambia, from December 2 to 14.<\/p>\n

The junior Flames are in group A alongside Zambia\u2014 who are considered cousins since the two countries share a lot in common, including borders\u2014Mozambique and new-comers, Reunion.<\/p>\n

Group B comprises defending champions South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius and eSwatini whereas Group C has Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Angola and Botswana.<\/p>\n

Only a top team in each pool and the best-placed runner-up advance to the semi-finals, where the competition switches to a knockout format.<\/p>\n

Malawi and Zambia were also in the same group during last year\u2019s edition of the tournament which Kitwe hosted.<\/p>\n

The junior Flames assistant Coach, Lovemore Fazili, Wednesday described the draw as \u2018fair\u2019, saying they are familiar with most of the opponents in the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a good draw for us because, save for Reunion, we know each other well. I think we can make it this year because we have a good crop of players. We will go there on a serious mission and, no doubt, we would do better,\u201d<\/em> Fazili said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few months ago, Malawi defeated Zambia 1-0 in a friendly in Lusaka just a day after the Chipolopolo boys won 1-0 at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in Lilongwe in a strength-testing match.<\/p>\n

In react ion, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Vice-President, James Mwenda, said he was happy with the draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past editions, we struggled because our players lacked exposure but now they have experience,\u201d<\/em> Mwenda said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Malawi\u2019s hopes would be on most players from the under-20 squad which nearly qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals but lost 2-0 to South Africa at BNS.<\/p>\n

Some of the players expected to be included in the squad are Chinsinsi Maonga, Chikondi Mbeta, Peter Banda<\/a>, Francisco Madinga and Charles Petro.<\/p>\n

In the last two editions, the junior Flames have failed go past the group stages.<\/p>\n

Last year, Malawi exited the competition on goal-aggregate after beating eSwatini 3-1, drawing 0-0 and 1-1 against Zambia and Uganda respectively.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the junior Flames failed to score in three games held in South Africa. Malawi reached the final of the 2002 edition, their best showing at this stage of the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mabvuto Kambuwe: Malawi under-20 national football team has been handed a relatively tough draw at the 2018 Cosafa Youth Championship slated for Kitwe, Zambia, from December 2 to 14. The junior Flames are in group A alongside Zambia\u2014 who are considered cousins since the two countries share a lot in common, including borders\u2014Mozambique and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71157","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\/71157","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=71157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71170,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71157\/revisions\/71170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}