Abel Mkandawire fixing Cosafa flaws
Malawi women’s national football team Coach, Abel Mkandawire, is leaving no stone unturned ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games qualifier against Kenya.
The She-Flames resumed camp training at Chiwembe Stadium in Blantyre on Friday after narrowly missing out on the 2019 Cosafa Women’s Championship semi-finals.
Mkandawire said he was concentrating on flaws he had noticed during the regional tournament in South Africa last month.
The mentor said he was focusing on maintaining possession and winning the ball after noticing that his charges struggled in the two areas during the Cosafa campaign.
“Our first training session was excellent and encouraging. We are looking at the technical part of it. We observed some weaknesses at the Cosafa Cup. We were losing some of the balls unnecessarily.
“Keeping possession is very important if a team is to win games. If we give the ball away unnecessarily, our opponents would easily punish us. So we need to bear that in mind as we meet Kenya,” Mkandawire said.
The seasoned coach said he was also working on zonal and man-to-man marking.
“The players also need to know how to win back possession and enhance their chances of winning matches. They must master skills of getting the ball back after losing it,” he said.
Mkandawire said it was important to maintain the squad and develop a winning mentality.
“We do not have to keep changing the squad every now and then. In football, you continue with the team you started with and build confidence. The players are gelling well and we are good to go. The foundation and the spine are there and I cannot complain,” he said.
Malawi host Kenya in the first leg at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on August 28 with the second leg scheduled for Nairobi, Kenya, three days later.
The She-Flames defeated Mozambique 14-1 on aggregate in the first-round back in May.
The winner between Malawi and Kenya will face either Gabon or Ghana in the third round.
