THE 2021 TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League Cosafa qualifier gets underway in Durban, South Africa tomorrow with seven teams battling it out for a place at the continental CAF Women’s Champions League.
Tura Magic will represent Namibia in the tournament that will also see some Southern African heavyweights in action, like South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns, Green Buffaloes of Zambia, and Zimbabwean champions Black Rhino Queens.
Tura Magic will compete in Group B, with their opening match against Black Rhino Queens only on Sunday, but the action gets underway tomorrow with two Group A matches at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban.
Double Action Ladies of Botswana take on Manzini Wanderers of Eswatini at 11h00, while Mamelodi Sundowns take on Lesotho Defence Force at 14h00.
Sundowns will be strong favourites to win the group and progress to the semifinals, where the winner of Group A will take on the runner-up of Group B and vice versa.
Sundowns have been in fine form in the South African Hollywoodbets Women’s Super League and currently hold a six-point lead at the top of the log.
They are still unbeaten after 12 matches, having won 11 and drawn one, while they racked up some emphatic wins over the past month.
On 7 August they thrashed Tsunami Queens 8-0, a week later they beat Richmond United 5-1 and on 21 August they beat Ma-Indies Ladies 3-0, to lead the log on 34 points from 12 matches, followed by University of Cape Town on 28 and Tshwane University of Technology on 27.
Sundowns have been boosted by seasoned Banyana striker Rhoda Mulaudzi who recently returned from Russian club, Dynamo Minsk, while experienced midfielder Lerato Kgasago has returned from injury.
Sundowns coach Jerry Tshabalala was certainly confident of their chances of winning the tournament.
“What we just need to do is go out there and win our group. By winning our group, it will give us a fair chance to be able to put one foot into Cairo,” he was quoted as saying by cosafa.com, adding that they hoped to emulate their men’s team that won the CAF Champions League in 2016.
Group B gets underway on Friday, with Green Buffaloes of Zambia taking on Zimbabwe’s Black Rhinos Queens.
Green Buffaloes are probably the favourites in Group B and have a star-studded side that includes several players who represented Zambia at the recent Tokyo Olympic Games.
Defenders Lushumo Mweemba, Martha Tembo and Anita Mulenga, and midfielders Ireen Lungu and Agness Musase were all part of the Zambian team that finished third in Group F at the Olympics, after drawing 4-4 against China and losing 10-3 to the Netherlands and 1-0 to Brazil.
Zambia’s star player at the Olympics, Barbra Banda, who scored hat-tricks against the Netherlands and China, and plays for the Chinese club Shanghai Shengli, recently boosted the Buffaloes when she visited them at a training session to wish them well.
“Superstar and 2020 Olympics record-breaker Barbra Banda visited Green Buffaloes during a training session and encouraged the girls to work hard and to put more effort in to achieve their goals,” the club said in a statement.
The Buffaloes’ assistant coach Carol Kanyemba was also confident of success.
“We are definitely going to Cairo. We want to be the first ones to represent Zambia at the CAF Women’s Champions League,” she said.
Black Rhino Queens have not been in competitive action for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic but coach Malven Moyo said they are confident of doing well.
“We last played in 2019, but we have been training in batches here and there. This year we have not trained due to the restrictions, but we have given our players individual training and our fitness trainer and coaches have been monitoring the players and visiting them individually,” he said.
Tura Magic, meanwhile, announced that Timo Tjongarero will take over as head coach for the tournament, with their regular coach Shama Gure acting as his assistant.
The experienced Tjongarero led the Namibian men’s team to the 2016 Cosafa u17 title and said
“We’ve been at the Cosafa Cup before and the experience is there, so for me it’s just to work closely with the guys who have been with the team in the past few months to guide me and familiarise myself with the current players,” he said.
Ï believe all the players want this; they want to win. That’s the take-off point, despite having limited time to prepare. But we will ensure that we are well prepared and that we put up a great performance at the tournament,” he said.
