THE inclusion of powerhouse Cameroon and Uganda in next month’s 2018 Cosafa Women’s Championship will boost the competition’s quality and appeal, says Brave Gladiators vice captain Stacey Naris.
On Monday, Cosafa announced that the two nations will complete the 12-team field for the competition, which runs from 12 to 22 September in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
The teams will learn their first-round fate today when the draw is held for the pool stages, where Namibia stumbled and hope to do better than last year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for women’s football in Africa at large, and only means more competition,” said Naris of the guest nations’ presence at the regional competition.
Cameroon, who played at the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Canada three years ago, will use the tournament to prepare for the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Ghana, where current Cosafa champions South Africa and Zambia will be Southern Africa’s representatives. The continental showpiece runs from 17 November to 1 December.
“Playing against one of the best on the continent would be both a great opportunity and challenge, but with both comes the pride of playing for your country. The inclusion of the two countries gives a boost to the tournament, and we welcome that,” Naris enthused.
Host South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland make up the remainder of this year’s Cosafa line-up.
The 12 teams will be split into three groups, each containing four sides. The top team in each pool will advance to the semi-finals, along with the best-placed runners-up.
Again, the Brave Gladiators head into the competition without competitive football to complement preparations, owing to the continued absence of a domestic league or international friendlies.
Despite the lamentable home setting, Naris is upbeat about the team’s prospects, and believes they can at least reach the semi’s this time around.
“Training is going very well. The coaches have been pleased with the players’ commitment towards training. On Sunday, we had our final fitness test, and the final team will be announced in due course,” she stated.
“The fact that there has been no league running will not stop us from competing and passing the group stages. The team spirit is high, and we are ready to not just participate, but to compete and have better results than we had in Zimbabwe,” she added.
The addition of Cameroon, runners-up in the last two Afcon tournaments, is expected to help raise Cosafa’s competitive level.
The West Africans’ pedigree is such that of their previous 11 appearances at the continental competition, they have only finished outside of the top four once, in South Africa in 2000.
Cameroon are ranked as the third-best in Africa, after Nigeria and Ghana, and will be the highest-ranked side at the Cosafa Women’s Championship, just ahead of hosts South Africa.
Cameroon are positioned at number 48 in the world, and South Africa number 51.
Meanwhile, Uganda are hoping to take their game to another level, having only once before qualified for the continental championships – ironically in that 2000 event hosted in South Africa.
They bring a different style to the tournament, and will hope to do better than East African rivals Kenya, who finished fourth at the 2017 Cosafa Women’s Championships when they were a guest nation in Bulawayo last year.
