Maqonda Ndlovu<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>The Brave Gladiators have been handed a tough draw in the 2023 Council of Southern African Football Associations, which took place<\/p>\n yesterday in Boksburg, South Africa.<\/p>\n The 2023 COSAFA Women\u2019s Championship will be hosted in Gauteng from 4 to 15 October 2023.<\/p>\n Namibia was drawn in Group C (the group of death) with Botswana, Lesotho, and<\/p>\n returnees Zimbabwe, in what can be considered a reasonably tough group.<\/p>\n The top teams in the group stages will<\/p>\n advance to the semifinals, while the best<\/p>\n runner-up across the pools will also move forward to the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n Reacting to the draw, Gladiators coach Paulus Shipanga said Group C is the toughest group because of its composition.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be no easy game in the group. Botswana is a tough team. We played them last year on their independence day, and we lost 2-1. Zimbabwe is coming back as an unknown book. They might be coming back stronger, depending on how busy they were during their suspension,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that Lesotho cannot be underestimated, as the Gladiators managed to narrowly beat them 2-1 at last year\u2019s Women\u2019s Cosafa Cup.<\/p>\n Shipanga added that Namibia is likely to use local-based players for the tournament because of the fixture load of the Gladiators.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore Cosafa, we are playing Gambia, and after Cosafa, we are playing Morocco. I don\u2019t see our foreign-based players being released for a month by their respective clubs. So, we would rather have them for the Olympic and Afcon qualifiers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hosts South Africa are in Group A and also face a tough task as they meet Malawi, Madagascar, and Eswatini.<\/p>\n Defending champions Zambia headline<\/p>\n Group B and will take on Mozambique,<\/p>\n Angola, and the Comoros as they look to<\/p>\n defend their title.<\/p>\n The tournament takes place against the backdrop of both Zambia and African champions South Africa having excelled at the 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n South Africa has won seven of the previous 10 COSAFA Women\u2019s Championships played, with Zimbabwe (2011), Tanzania (2021), and Zambia (2022).<\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maqonda Ndlovu Africa-Press – Namibia. The Brave Gladiators have been handed a tough draw in the 2023 Council of Southern African Football Associations, which took place yesterday in Boksburg, South Africa. The 2023 COSAFA Women\u2019s Championship will be hosted in Gauteng from 4 to 15 October 2023. Namibia was drawn in Group C (the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":53635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-53637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\n