{"id":78594,"date":"2019-05-31T05:27:28","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T03:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=78594"},"modified":"2019-05-31T05:27:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T03:27:29","slug":"classy-mwase-guides-flames-top-despite-making-nine-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/classy-mwase-guides-flames-top-despite-making-nine-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Classy Mwase guides Flames top despite making nine changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mphatso Malidadi:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
FOCUSING ON NEXT MATCH\u2014Mwase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Malawi national football team got a test and some food for thought ahead of Sunday\u2019s Cosafa Cup quarterfinal against Zambia after Mozambique snatched a late goal to force a 1-1 draw at King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban, South Africa, Thursday.<\/p>\n

Following the draw, Malawi finished Group B with seven points from three games whereas Mozambique ended on third position with two points.<\/p>\n

Second-placed Namibia beat<\/a> Seychelles 3-0 to cement their position with six points while Seychelles anchor the table with a point.<\/p>\n

Despite being a dead-rubber, both teams gave their all in the match, with energetic and transitional attacking football.<\/p>\n

As promised, Flames interim Coach, Meke Mwase, made nine changes to the team that started against Namibia and Seychelles.<\/p>\n

Defenders Peter Cholopi and Precious Sambani were the only survivors.<\/p>\n

Malawi were slow and played too deep in the first 15 minutes but managed to contain pressure.<\/p>\n

The Flames were forced into an early substitution after Gomezgani Chirwa picked an injury and was replaced by Stanley Sanudi.<\/p>\n

Hassan Kajoke, on his first start for the Flames, was gifted a goal following a blunder by Mozambique\u2019s goalkeeper who spilled a Peter Banda corner-kick in the 32nd minute.<\/p>\n

The Malawians were buoyed by some noisy supporters to take control of the game and attacked and defended as a unit.<\/p>\n

After recess, Mozambique had some decent chances but Munthali and his defence were equal to the task.<\/p>\n

As Mozambique made changes in search of an equaliser, Mwase also responded by first introducing John Banda for Mike Mkwate, before substituting Peter Banda for Gabadinho Mhango.<\/p>\n

But it was Mozambique who benefitted from their substitutions as they scored from a cornerkick. It was Munthali who had misjudged the flight of the ball to allow Jeitoso to get an equaliser.<\/p>\n

Gerald Phiri Jnr was named Man-of the-Match after leading the onslaught from the midfield.<\/p>\n

Mwase said he had faith in his changed squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis campaign has been very exciting. We have not been doing well lately, so we are happy to finish on top of our group. We have a very important game against Zambia and some of our players needed rest. Zambia have been giving us problems but we will prepare for them,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mozambique Coach, Abel Xavier, said his charges deserved more than just a point following an outstanding display in the second half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mphatso Malidadi: Malawi national football team got a test and some food for thought ahead of Sunday\u2019s Cosafa Cup quarterfinal against Zambia after Mozambique snatched a late goal to force a 1-1 draw at King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban, South Africa, Thursday. Following the draw, Malawi finished Group B with seven points from three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78594","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\/78594","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=78594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78602,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78594\/revisions\/78602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}