* After beating Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Lionesses 1-0 at Bingu National Stadium yesterday
* We deserved to win the competition — the girls were first on the ball—Ascent coach Thom Mkorongo
* Silver Strikers Ladies clinched 3rd place after beating Civil Service Women 4-1
Maravi Express
Team of the moment Ascent Soccer were crowned champions of this year’s FAM Goshen City Women’s National Championship after beating Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Lionesses 1-0 at Bingu National Stadium Lilongwe yesterday.
Advertisement
After five days of intriguing women’s football, Ascent showed great character as they maintained their dominance over the MDF Lionesses to win the championship on their second attempt.
It is a deserving achievement for the Lilongwe-based side as they finished as runners-up during last year’s edition following a 3-5 loss to Kukoma Ntopwa Women at Mpira Stadium in Blantyre.
Marium Mnenula scored the priceless goal in the 15th minute to ensure her side finished the tournament with a 100% record after winning all the three matches, scoring seven goals without conceding.
On top of that, Ascent have qualified for the Confederation of African Football Champions League-COSAFA qualifiers slated to take place in South Africa later this year.
Ascent coach Thom Mkorongo praised the players for a good performance: ”We deserved to win the competition — the girls were first on the ball. We could have scored more goals but we also missed some chances.”
His counterpart for MDF Lionesses, John Kaputa admitted his charges were second on the ball on the day; “Congratulations to Ascent for their hard work — we tried our best but it was not our day.”
In the third place play-off, Silver Strikers Ladies defeated rivals Civil Service United Women 4-1 at the same venue through an own goal from Atupele Mpoma in the 2nd minute, a 9th minute goal from Chikondi Dube, Chisomo Banda’s 39th and Madyina Nguluwe’s 73rd while the consolation goal for Civil Service Women was from Jean Fyson in the 48th.
In the individual awards, Mnenula was named Player of the Tournament for helping Ascent to win the competition, her Mkorongo was named Coach of the Tournament while Fazila Chiyembekezo won the Golden Boot award after scoring three goals.
Coach of the moment Thom Mkorongo
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Fleetwood Haiya and Prophet Shepherd Bushiri graced the final and in his remarks, Haiya said the association will invest more in the game to take it to the next level.
“As FAM, we are making sure we support them to participate in international competition. The level of football has been quite impressive throughout the tournament.”
On her part, National Women’s Football Association (NWFA) president Adelaide Migogo was impressed with the turn out of fans during the tournament, saying: ”We are very happy this is what we expected and all the teams were hungry to win the championship.”
Goshen City sponsored the competition to the tune of K21 million towards the uniforms, medals and individuals awards while FAM contributed K50 million towards prizes for the teams, subventions, referees and general match organisation.
Ascent pocketed K8 million; runners-up MDF Lionesses got K4 million; Silver pocketed K2 million for finishing third while FAM provided K1 million to each of the 10 teams that qualified for the national phase and on top of that, the association also provided extra K1 million to the semi-finalists.—Reporting by Fam.mw
Advertisement