Cosafa Women’s Champs set for kickoff

The 2023 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship will kick-off on Wednesday with two Group A clashes at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville, including a fixture for African champions and hosts South Africa. 

The 12-team competition is in a new home this year, but will have the same fantastic quality with defending champions Zambia joining the hosts as two sides who competed in the recent 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The competition starts with a meeting between Madagascar and Eswatini at 12h00 CAT, before South Africa take on 2021 finalists Malawi at 15h00 CAT in what is set to be a mouthwatering match-up. 

Entrance to all matches during the competition is free, with fans able to collect their tickets on match-day on a first come, first served basis.

“This is another opportunity for us to bring in some players into the system,” South Africa coach Des Ellis said. “Two weeks after the Cosafa Women’s Championship we are back in camp. We play the Olympic qualifiers in October and towards the end of November, we have the Wafcon qualifiers, so it is a busy period. 

“It is another opportunity for us to test players. It is another opportunity for us to make the core group bigger because we have used it (the Cosafa Women’s Championship) over the years to test players.” 

Zambia will also have a much-changed squad under coach Bruce Mwape as they also look to the future. Their first game in Group B is against Mozambique on Thursday at 15h30 CAT, while earlier in the day Angola take on Comoros (12h00 CAT). Both those games are also at the Lucas Moripe Stadium. 

Zambia won their maiden Cosafa Women’s Championship title when they beat South Africa 1-0 in the 2022 decider. They had lost to the same opponents in their other final appearance in 2019. 

Zambian hot-shot Barbra Banda finished top of the scorers charts at the 2022 Cosafa Women’s Championship with 10 goals, double the next highest by Botswana’s Gaonyadiwe Ontlametse. 

Zimbabwe return after missing last year due to their FIFA suspension and start their bid for a second regional title against Lesotho in a Group C fixture on Friday at 12h00 CAT. Later in the day Namibia take on Botswana at 15h30. Those matches are also in Atteridgeville. 

The top team in each pool and the best placed runner-up across the three groups will qualify for the semifinals, providing little margin for error for the sides. 

South Africa are the top-ranked side in the Cosafa region according to the FIFA Women’s World Rankings at number 45. They are the second best team in Africa according to the list after Nigeria (32). Zambia are the next highest from the Cosafa region at 69. 

South Africa have won seven of the previous 10 Cosafa Women’s Championships played, with Zimbabwe (2011), Tanzania (2021) and Zambia (2022) the other teams to lift the trophy.