Tanzania crowned champions of women's Under-17 competition

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania have been crowned the champions of the Cosafa’s U-17 women’s competition after winning 4-3 in the final against Zambia on penalty shoot-outs on Saturday ’at the Mandela Bay Stadium in South Africa. They drew 1-1 in regulation time.

Apart from winning the title, the victory is the revenge for Tanzania’s national women team, who lost 2-1 in group stage of the competition.

Tanzania are worthy winners after their superb display of football in the tournament that saw them lift the trophy.

Both sides made a fast start to the game with chances at either ends, but it was Tanzania who began to dominate with set-pieces into the Zambian box causing all sorts of danger. Zambians broke the deadlock though Comfort Seleman as she provided a neat finish in 19th. It took Tanzania until five added minutes from time to draw level through a penalty taken well by Koku Kipanga. The Tanzania side created many clear scoring chances, but lack of concentration made them either shoot wide or on the Zambian goalkeeper Chitete Munsaka. As the match went on, Zambians seemed to be satisfied with the 1-0 lead and made Tanzanians increase efforts and secured a penalty converted by Kipanga. Tanzania team head coach Edna Lema commended her players for the victory that has made the country proud.

“We deserved to win the trophy, despite the fact that we competed in the tournament as an invited team.

“We are still building the team and we are sure that in the next few years, they will be the dependable players of the senior women team, Twiga Stars,” said Lema.

The tournament also saw prolific striker Aisha Masaka of Tanzania win the Golden Boot trophy with her 10 goals, while Zambia won the Fair Play Award. Zambia’s Tisilile Lungu won the Player of the Tournament prize, while the Golden Glove prize went to Zambia’s goalkeeper Chitete Munsaka, as the side conceded just five goals in the competition, the fewest of all the teams.

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By Majuto Omary @majutoy2k [email protected]