Zambia women’s national team coach Bruce Mwape has remained optimistic about the Copper Queens’ chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympics despite suffering a 3-0 defeat at the hands of four-time champions United States on Thursday.
A brace from Mallory Swanson and a goal from Trinity Rodman gave the United States maximum points in a match in which the Copper Queens played an hour with one less player after Pauline Zulu was red carded in the 30th minute.
“The fans must not lose hope, we still have two games left to play, we can still qualify for the quarter-finals and it is not the end of the world. It was a bad result, but the girls did well, especially in the second half. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half and they took advantage of those mistakes, but in the second half we recovered.” Mwape watched.
“We need to re-strategize because we need to start creating opportunities, unlike how we played the game against the United States, and I am sure we can come out on top.”
Mwape is already looking ahead to the game against Australia on Sunday. The Matildas lost 3-0 to Germany, making Sunday’s match more crucial than ever. “Morale is still high. When we conceded three goals in the first half, we thought it would be worse in the second half, but we changed tactics, things happened and we will continue with the same tactics to get the win in the second match.” Mwape said.
“(Defender) Esther (Muchinga) played well because she came on in the first half, she never made any mistakes, in the second half she did well and we will continue with the same player.”
The top two teams after Matchday 3 will advance to the quarter-finals and join the two best third-placed teams for the knockout stage of the tournament. Zambia is playing in its second consecutive Olympic Games after making its debut in 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
