Zambia depart for Morocco camp ahead of U17 FIFA World Cup

Zambia women’s national U17 team have departed Morocco via Doha for a pre-tournament international camp ahead of their participation in the tournament slated for the same country.

The team led by coach Carol Kanyemba will set up base in Morocco where they will play some warm up matches before the tournament kicks off.  Zambia will play Cameroon and Colombia with a third international friendly penciled to conclude their pre-tournament camp in Casablanca.

Kanyemba and her technical staff have made a back-to-back FIFA World Cup appearance adding to the 2014 debut appearance with Zambia looking to make it out of the group stage this time around.

Kanyemba sets target of reaching the group stages

In a recent interview, Kanyemba said qualifying to back-to-back FIFA World Cups was a huge achievement with the team aiming to better their 2024 first round exit.

“Definitely it’s a lot of pressure going to the same stage in a space of one year twice. There is a lot of expectation among ourselves and that is what we are working on, telling the girls that a lot is expected from us,” said Kanyemba.

“Last year we went as amateurs, with less knowledge about the game (tournament) and the teams that we played. This year we are going back with a lot of expectations.”

Zambia will start their campaign against Paraguay

She further added that the aim was to push their way beyond the group stage where Zambia has bowed out in their past two appearances (2014 and 2024).

“Personally, I have an aim to go past the group stage together with girls and that is what we are encouraging the girls to do,” she said. “I will say preparation is everything.

“We can be as confident as we are but without high profile games, the first games that we will play at the world cup will be like our friendlies which won’t be good enough and won’t bring anything different.”

The team which is in Group F alongside Paraguay, Japan and New Zealand will set up base in Morocco where they are expected to play some preparatory matches. Zambia’s opening match is on October 19 against Paraguay at the Football Academy Mohammed VI (Pitch 3) in Sale before facing Japan three days later at the same venue.

Their final game will be against New Zealand at the Football Academy Mohammed VI (Pitch 2).

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