Malawi under-17, Queens suffer heavy defeats
Malawi national under-17 football team continued to leak goals at the Cosafa Youth Championship with an embarrassing 7-1 defeat to Angola in a match played at Oval Stadium in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, Thursday.
As the junior Flames were chasing shadows, The Malawi National Netball Team was suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of South Africa.
The losses summed up Malawi’s comical displays in international matches.
In terms of the under-17 team, it has lost two games and drawn once to crash out of qualification for next year’s under-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
This is the young Flames’ heaviest defeat in the Cosafa Cup since introduction of the region competition in 1994.
Malawi were hoping to sneak into the finals through a miracle as the pool stages concluded yesterday but another disaster came their way, letting in the seven goals against Angola.
This came just two days after conceding six goals against defending champions Zambia in a 6-2 rout.
This means Malawi have exited the competition having conceded 15 goals against five in three games.
Custodio Hequele netted a hat-trick for Angola with the other goals coming from Vincente Domingos, Amindo Canji, Alexander Cacuo and Osvaldo Inga whereas Samson Zakeyu scored Malawi’s consolation.
The young Flames are the only side to finish the pool stages without a win in a reset tournament after Zimbabwe, Comoros Islands, Botswana and eSwatini were disqualified for using over-aged players.
Despite the result, Malawi Coach Deklerk Msakakuona was optimistic of turning the tables to win bronze on Sunday.
“It will be a different ball game altogether and people will see something new on Sunday,” Msakakuona said.
The junior Flames will take on Angola in a rematch that will decide the team to clinch bronze at the competition.
Meanwhile, the Queens suffered a humiliating defeat after going down to South Africa Spar Proteas 66-25 in the first match of the three Test Series. The second game is on this evening with the last match taking place on Sunday.
Queens were outplayed in all the departments and the absence of three key players only exposed how vulnerable the senior side becomes.
Queens were without suspended Manchester Thunder defender Lauren Ngwira and shooters Mwawi Kumwenda of Melbourne Vixens in Australia and Joyce Mvula of Manchester Thunder.
Prior to the match Queens coach Peace Chawinga-Kaluwa lamented the low mood in camp following the death of legendary netball coach Griffin Saenda Snr.
Malawi trailed the first quarter 6-15 and at half time Malawi were 9-31.
South Africa stretched the lead to 48-15 in the third quarter before wrapping up victory in the last quarter 65-25.
