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Flames camp on Thursday
By
Frazer Nazombe - 26-05-2003 |
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The Malawi national team return to camp on Thursday after booting out Botswana in the Cosafa Castle Cup to continue preparations for the Africa Nations Cup Group A return leg qualifier in Lagos slated for June 7.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) public relations and marketing officer Izabel Maziya said the association is happy with Flames 4-1 victory over the Zebras on post match penalties and the team will go into camp after a short break to intensify training for Nigeria.
“We are happy with the team’s performance which was a result of hard work by the team and we will allow them to go for a two-day break so that the players should refresh and see their families,” said Maziya.
Maziya could not disclose whether there is need to beef up the squad but said Fam will do everything possible to ensure that the fighting spirit continues for better results.
“We are going to treat the players nicely to boost their morale but we will hear from the coaching panel whether it is necessary to beef up the team,” she said.
Soccer analyst Alfred Mtenje, who is chairman of University of Malawi Sports Association, said Malawi played better in the Sunday’s game against Botswana than they played in the international friendly against Zambia a week earlier.
“We were very good in defence with excellent covering and we were winning most of the balls. Our midfield was also good in ball distribution and the whole team was attack minded with nice goal-keeping,” said Mtenje.
Mtenje said the Flames had problems in attacking from the wings as there were no crosses into the box and aerial balls to the strikers were not of much use.
“We sent high balls to our short strikers and at times it seemed we were attacking with only one striker. The formation appeared to be defensive with the initial line up featuring one striker Heston Munthali,” he said.
Flames were narrowly doused by the Super Eagles with a 1-0 margin in the first leg of the Africa Nations Cup Group A qualifier played on March 29 at Chichiri Stadium after putting up a good fight and most of the soccer followers believe a draw in Nigeria is the best result for Malawi in the return leg to be played in two week’s time.
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