Green Buffaloes have been crowned winners of the inaugural Zambia Women’s League Charity Shield following a 5-4 post-match penalties victory over Indeni Roses on Saturday (16 February 2019) at Sunset Stadium in Lusaka.
The match pitted the Copperbelt Zone League champions, Indeni, and the Midlands League Zone winners, Green Buffaloes, in the battle for the season-opening silverware of the 2019 FAZ Women’s League season.
Buffaloes took the lead in the 24th minute when Rachel Nachula fired-in a long-range shot. But the lead lasted for just ten minutes when Mwaka Mupeta slotted in the ball from close-range thanks to some great work by Msozi Zulu.
The two sides were later separated by post-match penalties that Buffaloes won 5-4 to become the first FAZ Women’s Charity Shield champions after Nachula, Joanna Benaya, Lweendo Chisamu, Mary Mwakapila and Martha Tembo all successfully converted their spot-kicks.
Msozi Zulu, Grace Zulu, Teresa Chewe, Rhoda Chileshe all converted for Roses but Esther Mukwasa fired her penalty high and over.
Buffaloes coach Charles Haalubono said it was great honour to be crowned inaugural FAZ Women's Charity Shield champions but that Roses had given them a good run for the honour.
“I am very impressed that the girls have won but we have to step up our performance. As you saw, Indeni played so well during the moments they fully controlled the game. So as Buffaloes, we cannot allow such a situation to happen again and we have to work hard," Haalubono said.
Roses coach Benson Chambeshi said he was proud of his ladies performance despite the defeat. “Well, that is the name of the game. If you don’t win within 90 minutes you either go into extra-time or penalties. It can go either way, we both had 50-50 chances and they got there’s and won the game,” Chambeshi said.
“We just trained for just three weeks so we still have a lot of work to do especially this year, we won the Copperbelt championship last year and everyone saw that in this game."
Meanwhile, six out of Buffaloes seven 2018 Total Women’s AFCON players all started in the final led by Shepolopolo goalkeeper Hazel Nali including midfielders Judith Zulu and Mary Mwakapila.
Defenders Agness Musase, Anita Mulenga and Martha Tembo are the other Sheppolopolo players who were part of the victorious Buffaloes side.
However, Indeni had only two of their four Total Women’s AFCON stars in the form of defenders Grace Zulu and Jacqueline Nkole.
Goalkeeper Catherine Musonda missed the match and is still recovering from an injury she sustained during Shepolopolo's pre-Total Women’s AFCON tournament transit training camp in Abidjan in November.
But prominently missing from Indeni’s lineup was striker Rachel Kundanaji who was Shepolopolo's Total Women’s AFCON top scorer on three goals. The 19-year old striker left last week for Asia where she has signed a short-term deal with an unnamed Kazakhstan club.
"Yes, we definitely missed her,” Chambeshi said.
"She would have made a difference and is player in her own league. She is a different person when she’s on the pitch but all we need is to recruit a replacement."
Source: cafonloine.com