Zambia national team coach, Bruce Mwape believes his players made too many mistakes in Shepolopolo’s 5-0 defeat to former World Cup champions Japan. It was Zambia’s first-ever match at a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“Maybe we can say it is the inexperience which has cost the team but when we look back from where we are coming from we have played better teams that are almost at the Japanese level,” Mwape told journalists after the game.
Catherine Musonda who had exceptionally well in goals to keep the scoreline at 1-0 at the break, was shown a red card seven minutes into injury time. She became the tournament’s second African player to be sent off. Japan had already wrapped up the game by the time Musonda marched off.
“Mostly we were losing possession even before the halfway line,” lamented the Zambian mentor. This meant that Barbara Banda had no influence on the game. Japan also had more than one player on Banda which nullified the Zambian attacks.
“As the technical bench, we are very disappointed. We expected to do better than we did tonight. There was a lot of panicking when we had the ball. Some of them were just kicking the ball forward hence giving possession to the opponent. Even tactical positioning wasn’t there, especially in the front,” Mwape pointed out.
Zambia’s search for a point or three continues against Spain, who have already registered a win against Costa Rica. Coach Mwape and his technical team will be working on correcting all the mistakes seen against Japan ahead of that crucial encounter.