Only Malawi’s Rejoice Silungwe scores against South Africa at the CAF African Schools Football Championship—COSAFA qualifiers

The Malawi girls earned the Fair Team Award

* The consolation goal she scored when South Africa beat the Malawi girls team by 3-1 in the final

* We know South Africa are a very good team but we told them to be first on the ball against South Africa

* Despite the loss, the Malawi girls team have qualified for continental finals as SA qualified as defending champions

Maravi Express

Malawi girls national schools football team’s Rejoice Silungwe was the only player to score against South Africa at the CAF African Schools Football Championship—COSAFA qualifiers in Namibia when they lost 1-3 in the final yesterday.

A report by COSAFA Media indicates that Silungwe was the first to score against the tough South Africans, who beat Namibia 13-0 in the group stages.

But South Africa hit back almost immediately through the competition’s top scorer Leonay Kock with 11 goals, who ended with a brace in the game and the other by Lethuthando Mthembu.

In the group matches, the Malawi girls team drew 2-2 with Namibia, beat Lesotho 5-0 and Zambia 3-0 before overcoming Zimbabwe 2-1 in the semifinals to date the South Africans.

Despite the loss in the final, the Malawi national schools Under-15 girls team have qualified for final tournament as South Africa automatically qualified as defending champions.

The Malawi girls will appear at the continental showpiece finals for the first time having failed to do so in the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023.

Coach Bridget Chirwa is quoted by Fam.mw as saying despite the defeat to South Africa, her team played well: “We know South Africa are a very good team but we told them to be first on the ball against South Africa.

“South Africa is a good team, but we are also the best. There were eight teams, but we managed to reach the final — which is not a mean achievement.

“Now that we have qualified, we will go back to the drawing board and work on our weaknesses and prepare for next year’s final,” Chirwa said.

Meanwhile, the Malawi boys’ team were eliminated in the semifinal after losing to South Africa but the consolation was striker Okester Kanyenda winning the Golden Boot with four goals while Malawi team took home the Fair Play award.

In the group stages, the boys teams beat Namibia 6-0, Lesotho 4-0 and lost 0-3 to Zambia in final group match but they still booked a place in the semifinals.

South Africa boys were crowned champions after beating Zambia 4-2 on penalties having played to a 1-1 draw, as both the boys and the girls achieved 100% record in the competition having won both categories in the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023.

The boys also had to come from behind in their final as Sydney Zulu profited from a goalkeeper error to give Zambia the lead in the first half but South Africa equalised in the second period through Luthando Mkhize for the match to go into penalty shoot-out; Zambia’s William Zulu won the Golden Glove for the boys and South Africa girls’ Mia Heneke earning the best goalkeeper accolade.—Content by Fam.mw & COSAFA; edited by Maravi Express