Zambia Women’s National Team coach Bruce Mwape says he is determined to guide the Copper Queens to their maiden appearance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Mwape is leading his side in Morocco where the Copper Queens are preparing for the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations and the top four teams will earn qualification to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World with two more teams qualifying for the inter-continental playoffs.
In-between qualifying the Copper Queens to back-to-back appearances, Mwape qualified the team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and now wants another achievement to the team’s history books – a World Cup appearance.
“Qualifying to the World Cup is my area of concentration because it will be a record for me to qualify the team to the World Cup and all I can say is we are working as a team and what we all want is to qualify to the World Cup and the history will be made like we did when we qualified to the (Tokyo) Olympics because no one expected that we could beat Cameroon and qualify to the Olympics,” Mwape said in an interview with the FAZ Media team.
“We want to qualify to the World, it’s our P1, the competition in the team is stiff especially in midfield and on the wingbacks, there is a lot of competition there because anybody can start the games and deliver.”
He said the task was not an easy one to achieve, but his belief lies in the players and members of his technical bench composed of assistant coaches Florence Mwila, Charity Nthala and goalkeeper coach Yona Phiri.
“Going to the World Cup is not easy, it is very difficult, we just need to work hard because if we relax then we won’t have it easy because the teams we are playing against are also fighting to go to the World Cup, so it is a question of being serious and focus on the games that we will be playing,”
The team arrived in Rabat on Thursday last week and settled for a 1-1 draw against Morocco in an international friendly on Saturday 18 June, and moved bases to the resort city of Marrakech as they continue to fine-tune ahead of the July 2-23 continental extravaganza.
“We are also planning to play two friendly games before the start of the competition so we still need to assess our players but at the moment and the way the players are looking, we are almost there,” Mwape said.
“Fans should be patient and we are here to deliver. I am sure they will still want to talk about players who are not here, let the, just support the players who are here who are all set to deliver if given a chance.”
A few injury concerns have been recorded with defender Lushomo Mweemba sitting out of training for two consecutive days, same as fellow defender Judith Soko who only started light training Tuesday evening.
“The players are looking good. From the time we played the Morocco friendly, everyone is focused. Lushomo Mweemba picked a knock while Judith Soko was injured in training. Soko has started light training, its only Lushomo Mweemba who is only remaining but I am sure by tomorrow or Friday, she will start light training,” Mwape said.
“Our main concern is on the attack, we still want to improve on our attack especially on the midfielders when it comes to joining upfront, that’s where we are focussing.”
The Copper Queens launch their 2022 AWCON title ambitions with a Group B opener against Cameroon at the Mohammed V stadium in Casablanca on 3 July. Tunisia will be next on the Copper Queens’ roster on July 6 before wrapping up their group matches against Togo on 9 July.
By FAZ Media
