Africa-Press – Lesotho. A brace from talisman Joseph Banda handed Zambia a 2-0 victory over hosts Lesotho on the opening day of the Boys’ u17 football tournament played at the Setsotso Stadium as part of the Region 5 Youth Games Maseru 2020 on Wednesday.
Banda was the star of the regional Under-17 championship in 2020 and has got this campaign off to the perfect start as he skippered the side to a victory that was completed with some ease in the end.
He topped the scorers charts in last year’s Cosafa Men’s u17 Championship with five goals, and later received a call-up to the senior national team aged just 15.
He did not take long to display his quality this year either, netting the opener with a neat side-foot finish as Zambia exposed the Lesotho defence on the left-had side.
Zambia continued to look the most likely to score next, but it took until the 71st minute for them to add a second, with Banda providing another composed finish.
Meanwhile, the opening match in Group B ended in a 1-1 stalemate but was a lively contest packed with action between Botswana and Malawi that set an excellent tone for the rest of the competition.
Malawi took the early lead when Madalitso Mwachumu provided an expert finish from the edge of the box, curling his effort into the net. Both sides had chances after that, but Botswana found an equaliser when they were correctly awarded a penalty for handball in the Malawi box and Phillip Kaku made no mistake from 12-yards.
His spot-kick arrowed into the top corner. In the end both sides had to settle for a point, with each having to face Angola in their remaining matches.
How they fare in those could well dictate which finishes in the top two in the pool. Perhaps it will be both. The opening match in the Girls’ Under-17 competition will be played on Thursday.
The competition has been reduced to three teams after numerous sides were forced to pull out due to travel difficulties around the COVID-19 pandemic. Zambia will take on Botswana at 13h00 CAT (11h00 GMT), with the third team in the competition being Namibia.
Previous winners of the Cosafa regional title in the women’s u17 age-group have both come from outside the region as Uganda triumphed in 2019 and Tanzania took home the prize last year.
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