The 2011 COSAFA Women's Championship will be held from 2nd-9th July on Réunion. We could see the debut of Madagascar at this event, maybe even Mauritius or Seychelles. http://www.hmetrozim.com/index.php?...ens-tourney-on&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=165 Countries eligible to compete: Angola Botswana Comoros Lesotho Madagascar (no national team matches so far) Malawi Mauritius (no national team matches so far) Mozambique Namibia Réunion Seychelles (no national team matches so far) South Africa Swaziland Zambia Zimbabwe Some teams will have trouble with finding money for the long trip. Indeed, Swaziland already expressed that they may not be able to go because of lack of funds.
4 teams confirmed so far - South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique have all confirmed participation, alongside hosts Réunion. One player for Mozambique will be former Olympic and World Championship gold medallist at 800 metres, Maria Mutola, who is 38. South Africa are using the tournament as a buildup to their final Olympic play-off against Ethiopia in September, while Mozambique will be using it as preparation for their hosting of the All-Africa Games, also in September. Malawi are getting back into international competition after a few years away, as they are planning to enter the 2012 African Championship qualification.
Zimbabwe and Lesotho have confirmed they will compete. Madagascar plans to compete also (but no official confirmation). So that's 6 or 7 teams so far. 18th May was the closing date for registration - and only the 4 countries mentioned in the previous post were registered, so I don't know how Zimbabwe and Lesotho can confirm their presence if they have not registered to compete...
maria mutola?....i knew her sister (or cousin....) was a football player but i didn't knew she was too.
Yes, AFRICA has 7 subzones compared to 3 for CONCACAF (UNCAF, CFU and whatever the North American teams belong to) Zone I: North Africa (UNAF) Zone II: Far-West Africa Zone III: West Africa (WAFU) Zone IV: West Central Africa Zone V: East & East Central Africa (CECAFA) Zone VI: Southern Africa (COSAFA) Zone VII: Indian Ocean Islands (UFFOI)
Réunion has now pulled out of hosting, and the tournament will be played in Harare, Zimbabwe on the same dates (2nd-9th July) 6 teams have confirmed, with responses awaited from 3 teams Confirmed teams: Zimbabwe South Africa Malawi Mozambique Botswana Lesotho Teams invited who have not yet decided: Tanzania (guest team) Zambia Réunion http://allafrica.com/stories/201106230222.html According to this link, Tanzania has accepted the invitation: http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=30464 And this link appears to show that Zambia will also be present: http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=21404 So it looks like a nice neat 8-team tournament, as I don't think Réunion will travel, as the reason they pulled out in the first place was due to lack of money.
http://www.cafonline.com/football/news/10255-draw-for-the-2011-cosafa-womens-championship.html GROUP A Zimbabwe Lesotho Mozambique Malawi GROUP B South Africa Zambia Tanzania Botswana
South Africa should win again, with Zimbabwe as their only competition. good to see the lower ranked teams participate.
1st Round of matches: GROUP A Zimbabwe 4-0 Lesotho (have also heard 3-0, have to confirm) Malawi 1-1 Mozambique GROUP B South Africa 4-1 Zambia Tanzania 4-1 Botswana
Confirmed results: GROUP A Zimbabwe 4-0 Lesotho Malawi 1-1 Mozambique GROUP B South Africa 4-1 Zambia Tanzania 3-1 Botswana
Today's results: Lesotho surprisingly beat Mozambique 3-2 in Group A while the other match between hosts Zimbabwe and Malawi was postponed until tomorrow to allow Sir Bladder to attend. So, it looks like Lesotho and Malawi will fight for the last semi-final place. In Group B, South Africa and Tanzania both reached the semi-finals with respective victories over Botswana (4-0) and Zambia (2-0).
Zimbabwe beat Malawi 8-2 today in front of the FIFA president and go through to the semi-finals. Lesotho and Malawi play tomorrow with the former needing just a draw to advance to the semi-finals, and a possible thrashing at the hands of South Africa when they get there.
Final group matches today: GROUP A Malawi 5-2 Lesotho (Malawi qualify for semi-finals) Zimbabwe 3-0 Mozambique ZIMBABWE - 9 pts, +13 GD MALAWI - 4 pts, -3 GD Lesotho - 3 pts, -6 GD Mozambique - 1pt, -4 GD GROUP B South Africa 1-0 Tanzania Zambia 4-1 Botswana SOUTH AFRICA - 9 pts, +8 GD TANZANIA - 6 pts, +3 GD Zambia - 3pts, -2 GD Botswana - 0pts, -9 GD Semi-finals on Thursday: South Africa v Malawi Zimbabwe v Tanzania
3rd place Tanzania 3:0 Malawi Asha Rashid 7', 10' Mwanahamisi Omari 35' http://in2eastafrica.net/twiga-stars-rout-malawi-to-finish-third/ Final Zimbabwe 1:0 South Africa Rufaro Machingira 84' http://www.supersport.com/football/south-africa/news/110709/Zimbabwe_claim_Cosafa_champs_title
Zimbabwe beating South Africa is somewhat of a suprise. I'm just hoping that means Ethiopia can also beat South Africa in Olympic qualifying.
South Africa has been playing pretty badly recently. They've lost to other teams like Tunisia and Botswana and had tough matches with Algeria, Tanzania and Mali. I think they are no longer one of the top 3 or 4 teams in Africa. Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Cameroon are the best 4, then after that it's quite equal. Ethiopia has a good chance if they can get an away goal in South Africa in the 1st leg.
Zimbabwe have made it to the semifinals of the African Women's Championship before, so South Africa's loss isn't quite as unsettling as some of their other recent results (especially since they were palying in Zimbabwe). Tanzania have confirmed their place as the coming team in African women's football; they are now securely in the chase group right behind Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and EG.