Zambia women's head coach keeping optimistic over Olympic hopes despite USA defeat
Despite starting strongly in the Group B fixture, the Copper Queens failed to keep their momentum against the four-time champions, conceding the opener in the 17th minute courtesy of Trinity Rodman.
USA doubled their lead in the 24th minute when Mallory Swanson rolled the ball past Zambia goalkeeper Ngambo Musole and she added the third, one minute later after finishing off a cross from Sophia Smith.
Zambia’s efforts to spark a comeback suffered a blow in the 34th minute when defender Pauline Zulu was sent to early showers following a professional foul. Zulu was first shown a yellow card, before VAR overturned the referee’s decision for a red card.
Check out the match report here.
Zambia have two matches to make amends
According to Mwape, the Copper Queens defeat was not the end of the world because they still have two group matches to play. “Fans shouldn’t lose hope, we still have two more games to go, we can still qualify to the quarterfinals, and it’s not the end of the world,” Mwape told reporters.
“It was a bad result but the girls did well, especially in the second half. We made many mistakes in the first half and they capitalized on those mistakes but we picked up in the second half.”
Mwape, however, admitted her girls were not good enough at creating chances, promising to improve on the same in their remaining matches. “We need to strategise once again because we need to start creating chances unlike the way we played the USA game and I am sure we will be able to carry the day,” added Mwape.
Zambia will next face Australia in their second group game on Sunday, June 28th. Mwape believes with the same tactics they deployed after going down against the USA, Zambia will get a positive result against the Matildas, who lost 3-0 to Germany in their opener.
“The morale is still high when we conceded three goals in the first half, we thought it was going to be worse in the second half but we changed the tactics, things happened and we will stick to the same tactics so that we get a win in the second game,” offered Mwape.
“(Defender) Esther (Muchinga) played well because she came in the first half, and she never made mistakes in the second half she did well and we will stick to the same player.”
Copper Queens will bounce back
Zambia captain Barbra Banda echoed coach Mwape’s sentiments saying the Copper Queens will recover from the disastrous start and qualify for the knockout stage.
“It’s not the result we wanted but it is a game and USA is a very good team and we conceded goals in a (space of) few minutes which was bad but we just have to go back to our drawing board and look at the mistakes that we made,” said Banda, who plays for Orlando Pride.
Banda revealed Zambia have put behind the defeat and are focused on the game against Australia.
“We are looking forward to another game, we still have a chance and we are still focused. We had a good second half, we coordinated well and were talking so from the first half, we were playing 10 v 11 (after the red card) which was not easy for us but at least in the second half, we managed to contain USA.”
Banda urged the fans to rally behind the team saying: “We have pressure because we have lost and Australia is also working on winning so it is a battle, the team that wants it the most is that team that is going to carry the day. Fans should believe in us and keep on supporting us because we will do well.”
After playing 2023 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists Australia at the Stade de Nice, Zambia, who are playing in their second consecutive Olympics having debuted in the 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Games, will wind up their preliminary fixtures against Germany at St Etienne on July 31st.
The top two teams after matchday three will progress to the quarter-finals and will be joined by the two best third-place teams in the tournament's knockout stage.
