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| Sports |
| Flames date Mozambique in Cosafa Cup |
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by
Garry Chirwa, 10 May 2004
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16:30:51
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The Flames have been drawn against Mozambique’s Mambas in the quarterfinals of the regional showcase—the Cosafa Castle Cup scheduled for June 13 at Machava Stadium in Maputo.
Malawi, losing finalists in last year’s edition, have a tight schedule next month in which they will also engage Africa Nations Cup finalists Morocco and Botswana in World Cup Group qualifiers..
A member of the Flames’ coaching panel Kinnah ‘Electric’ Phiri described the draw as tough.
“It will be strenuous battle. Mozambique have got a very good side now with a good blend of experienced and young blood and they have a brilliant coach in Victor Bondarenko and to add on to that they are very difficult to beat on home soil,” said Kinnah.
But the coach was quick to point out that beating Mozambique in their own territory is not beyond the realms of possibility.
“We equally have a good team with experienced players like Patrick Mabedi and Essau Kanyenda and if we can have them in good time ahead of the games then so much the better because they need to train with other players,” said Kinnah.
But Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has since asked the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) to seriously consider shifting the Mozambique game to July 31.
“Before the draw was conducted at the weekend, we had already asked Cosafa to consider staging our quarterfinal game in July. Our programme for next month is just too tight and looking at our meagre resources, it will be very difficult for us to play three games in four weeks. We really need some breathing space,” said the association’s spokesman McCollins Chibvunde.
He also said Fam will still make a follow-up with the regional body on the issue.
To qualify for the quarterfinals, Mozambique beat Madagascar 2-0 recently while the Flames were seeded having made it to the last four last year.
This will be the third meeting between the two teams in the competition. They first met in 1997 when the Flames were held to a two-all draw in Lilongwe. The Flames won the second combat 2-1 at Chichiri Stadium in Blantyre in 2000.
Some of the Mambas key members are South African-based Emmanuel ‘Tico-Tico’ Bacuane who plays for Jomo Cosmos along with Russell Mwafulirwa and Peter Mgangira. The others are Goncalves Fumo and Paulito.
Following is the full quarterfinal draw conducted in Angola’s capital Luanda on Sunday: Mozambique v Malawi (13 June, Maputo); Swaziland v Zimbabwe (27 June, Somhlolo); Angola v Botswana (18 July, Luanda); Zambia v Mauritius (31 July, Lusaka).
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