Shepolopolo Zambia is moving on after losing the COSAFA Women’s Under-17 Championship final to Tanzania on Saturday at Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
The Zambian girls won silver after giving away 1-0 lead to lose 4-3 on post match penalties following a 1-1 draw in the final.
Coach Kangwa Kaluba’s girls were seen crying after recording their first defeat at the championship.
In a post-match interview, Kaluba after blaming match officials for the loss later admitted that the girls must understand that losing was part of the game.
“I think the girls played very well except the fact that the game was so frustrating at some point especially with regards to poor officiating,” Kaluba said.
“For me officiating really has been a challenge, the previous game we played against Zimbabwe all the instructions were given by the fourth official.”
“We scored a second goal but I don’t understand why it was not a goal. It was not offside,” he said.
Kaluba said the girls were eager to win the championship after winning bronze last year.
“We really wanted to win it but at the end of the day we couldn’t. The girls have been doing so well except that it has to turn around in the final,” he said.
Kaluba added:”The girls need to accept the situation. The only thing we need is parental care to calm them down, accept the situation that it has happened. That is what they need to know in football.”
“In football you win some, you lose some and that is the situation. So when it happens like this we need to help them with the mental aspect to become very strong.”
“They girls need to know that everybody has been fighting for this cup and you can see that from the way we have been playing our games, the girls have been putting in a lot,” Kaluba said.
That a wise coach, Kaluba should be a school teacher.
I watched that match, and the refereeing was pathetic to say the least. My advise to organizers of women football in Africa is that they should not immediately do away with male referees completely when such tournaments are being, just for the sake of promoting women referees. The referee for that Zambia/Tanzania game does not understand the refereeing rule that she can over rule the lines woman, and the lines women did not seem to know that they are there to assist the referee because they are able to see things from another angle! Sadly the said match officials don’t seem to understand the all important and delicate off-side rule. The second goal for Zambia was not offside because the ball was kicked to the direction where the Zambian strikers were, before the players moved into…