Stage set for Women final – 09/05/2008

The COSAFA Organising Committee and the Local Organising Committee are finalising arrangements for the final match of the highly successful COSAFA Women Championship in the Angolan north-central town of Malanje.

The Competition, which is already a mayor success and has been marked by the attendance of large crowds, is going into its final stages on Saturday when the Third Place Play-off and Final matches are scheduled to take place at the 1st of May Stadium.

Namibia is having a date with Zimbabwe in the first match at 9:00 while hosts Angola will face South Africa in the final match at 15:00. This match is expected to deliver a lot of fireworks as the two best teams of the tournament face each other. South Africa had a relatively easier run up to the semifinal were they encountered their first real test in Namibia. Namibia could have easily won the match had they taken their chances during a first half which they dominated.  On the other hand Angola had a more testing run to the finals having to face Namibia, Swaziland and Mozambique on the way.

Looking at the two teams South Africa has the benefit of youth on their side while Angola has brought a slightly older team to the competition. It clearly is a battle between power on the one hand and speed and the ability of youth to recover better between matches in a competition of this nature. Angola however has the added advantage of playing in front of a large and very partisan crowd of fans.  Speaking to nfa.org from Malanje, the NFA Acting Secretary General and member of the COSAFA Organising Committee, Mr. Barry Rukoro, said that the tournament has enjoyed tremendous support from the public and has maintained daily crowds attendances of between seven and ten thousand spectators at the Malanje venue.  This is a positive factor for women football and the competition is generally a very good advert for women football.  Mr. Rukoro also said it is indeed a fact that the national associations of COSAFA have done a great deal of work in the development of the women game. This is obvious if you compare the previous tournaments to this one. 

nfa.org predictions: first place – Angola
             second place – South Africa
             third place – Namibia
             fourth place - Zimbabwe