Malawi senior women’s national team coach Lovemore Fazili says his tactics were spot on, as his side was crowned winners of the 2023 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women’s Championship at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday.
The Scorchers claimed their maiden gold medal at the tournament, dethroning Zambia who they defeated 2-1 in dramatic fashion in the final.
Fazili’s charges had taken a first-half lead, and had a goal disallowed by the Video Assistance Referee (VAR) technology, which was being used for the first time at a COSAFA tournament in Gauteng.
Malawi gave away a penalty late in the match, which saw the Copper Queens convert to equalise, but the former dug deep to regain the lead in injury-time and ultimately become the Southern regional champions.
Malawi were the highest scoring side in the competition with their captain Temwa Chawinga the golden boot winner with nine goals.
Fazili says he knew Zambia were going to target Chawinga and didn’t play her as the main striker in the game.
“When we talk about Temwa it was our game plan because we knew that Zambia would target Temwa,” Fazili told the media after the final.
“If you saw our formation, our team formation we put Sabinah Thom as the target striker and Temwa was behind Sabinha. So we did that deliberately because we knew that Zambia would actually target Temwa. So it was our game plan and it proved that it was a good game plan.”
Fazili also believes this group of players are potentially the golden generation that could qualify for major tournaments in the future.
“Yes I’d still maintain the same team, definitely maybe next year we will participate maybe in the Olympics or WAFCON or whatever and I said it’s a project which we have to continue.
“So I will maintain the same team. It’s a winning team, why should I choose a few and leave some players.
“So it’s a project we still need to continue maybe if we have a few players at home who are performing better they will join and they have to compete. So to me this is my good team, my dream team anyway.
“Even if we join the World Cup tomorrow I’d still take these girls to the World Cup.”
