By Mubukwanu Kaingu
Zambia women’s national team starts its 2024 Olympic Games football tournament Group B campaign on Thursday evening in Nice against the USA.
Bruce Mwape’s side will begin the campaign against the Olympic Games’ most successful women’s football tournament team which has won a record four gold medals.
Australia and Germany are Zambia’s other Group B opponents they will face on July 28 and July 31 respectively.
It’s also going to be a very huge test for Zambia captained by striker Barbra Banda.
Banda herself returns hoping to set another Olympic record after her two hat-tricks at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games stage in 2021.
In addition, Zambia, who made their Olympic debut in Tokyo with two defeats and a draw to exit at the preliminary stage, will be aiming to improve on that performance.
Furthermore, big lessons were taken from their next major assignment after the Olympics last July at the Australia/New Zealand 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup where they again made a preliminary group stage exit with a win and two defeats.
“All that we want is to just focus on the games and as far as I am concerned going back to the Olympics we need to improve our performance, ” coach Bruce Mwape said.
“It was the first time and this is the second time and most of the players have that experience to withstand any pressure so they just have to focus on the three games. “
Thursday evening’s 21h00 kickoff will also see Zambia’s debut meeting against a North American opponent.
But Banda and her strike partner Rachael Kundananji have some club experience playing in the USA league.
Banda and Kundananji also face an American side loaded with two-thirds of familiar faces who also campaign in the same North American Women’s Soccer League.
It is vital that Zambia begins its Paris 2024 campaign on a positive note with history showing poor starts at both the Olympics and FIFA World Cup being an early indication of early tournament exits.
