Mozambique take the first win of the Cosafa Cup
The 18th edition of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup kicked off on Sunday afternoon as Mozambique and Madagascar faced off at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.
POLOKWANE – Mozambique started their Group A match with a 2-1 win as they raised their hopes of making it to the knockout stages.
The MEC for Sport, Onicca Moloi, accompanied by tournament officials and Cosafa personnel as well as other stakeholders officially launched the tournament on Friday, 25 May. During the launch they also celebrated Africa Day.
Read more: Cosafa Cup to be hosted in Polokwane
Moloi said hosting the Cosafa Cup was a great opportunity for Limpopo to showcase the beauty of the province.
“It is an opportunity for us as a province to inject some life into our economy, because when we have people here in our hotels and going to our restaurant it means their spending will benefit our province’s economy. We also have some people who assist us with the Cosafa Cup who will receive a stipend, giving them the opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience. We also have club development programmes and are going to have a number of level D coaches as a result,” Moloi said.
She added the Cosafa Cup will greatly contribute to social cohesion in the culturally diverse Limpopo. “We will board players from countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique which means we have the opportunity to showcase Limpopo’s beauty and culture to people from SADC, in turn encouraging to view Limpopo as a top tourist destination.”
Mozambique head coach, Abel Xavier, said his team went into the match with a well-planned strategy.
“We changed the structure to a 4-4-2 formation as we understand the game can be manageable from back to front by letting two key strikers apply pressure. We were not overly keen in the first half because we did not have an offensive structure. I believe Madagascar have two creative midfielders in Tsiry Mirado Razefindrasata and Andriamirado Aro Hasina Andrianarimanana, players we already know from last year. I had a tough talk with my players during halftime and I made some changes to our structure to balance my squad. We are growing into the competition we are going to correct the mistake we made against Madagascar,” said Xavier. Madagascar coach, Franklin Andriamanarivo, said even though they were off to a rocky start, the players managed to play good football. “We wanted to beat Mozambique as it was very important for us since it was the opening match. For now our mission is to win the remaining matches as we need six more points to reach the quarter final,” Andriamanarivo said.
