Zambia have cruised to the Girls’ Under-17 football crown at the Region 5 Youth Games Maseru 2020 with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Botswana in the final at the Setsotso Stadium on Monday.
Zambia finish the competition unbeaten in their three matches and without having conceded a goal as they emphasised their quality and lived up to their billing as the pre-tournament favourites.
They are also the first side from the COSAFA region to claim the trophy in this age-group, after Uganda won the inaugural Southern African championship in 2019 and Tanzania claimed the victory last year.
Zambia were deserved winners, with Jessy Zulu and Lucy Kajiya grabbing first half goals, and skipper Pumulo Lubasi and Gracious Tailoshi adding two more in the second period.
The strike from Tailoshi was one to remember as she thundered in a superb free-kick from a difficult angle.
The excellent Lubasi was named as Player of the Tournament, which comes with an incredible opportunity of spending a week in Spain as a guest of LaLiga Santander, where she will take in the sights and sounds of one of the world’s great footballing nations, train with an academy and hopefully take in a LaLiga match.
Kajiya claimed the Golden Boot for her three goals that saw her as the leading scorer, while Zambia goalkeeper Chitete Munsaka takes home the Golden Glove. The team Fair Play award went to Botswana.
They had booked their place in the final with a 2-1 win over Namibia earlier in the day.
Tumelo Tiro and Kefilwe Hangara had them 2-0 up by halftime, but Anna Somses pulled a goal back for the Namibians. They needed to win the game to advance, but could not turn the tables on their opponents and went out with a pair of defeats.
The match was officiated by 16-year-old Zambian referee Raphael Mbotela, another sign that COSAFA develops not only players, but match officials too.
“I am extremely happy with the performance of the young boy. He did everything right,” COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima said. “We had the boy for five days in the pre-tournament course and the bottom line is we are very happy and excited about him.
“We will assign an Instructor in Zambia to continue developing him. I urge other national associations to identify and develop these youngsters as well.”
MONDAY’S RESULTS
Girls
Botswana 2 (Tiro 10′, Hangara 42′) Namibia 1 (Somses 56′)
Girls Final
Zambia 4 (J. Zulu 13′, Kajiya 39′, Lubasi 69’, Tailoshi 71’) Botswana 0
Source: COSAFA.com
