Something amiss about the Copper Queens Vs Japan
As a former footballer and analyst, I was left bewildered with the below par performance of our girls in their debut World Cup appearance. Their opponents Japan, albeit with a superior ranking than the Copper Queens did not offer much besides their pace and the goals they scored. On our part, the girls were a shadow of their original self.
Having followed the progress of our girls over the years and based on yesterday’s performance, I could not help but notice that team morale and coordination was absent and the usual high team spirit was missing.
Everyone in the team, from the Captain to the Coach had an off day. In football, there is no way that the entire team could have a bad day in the same game. Admittedly, there have been some off field issues around the team but I believe that the girls have now accumulated sufficient professional experience that can insulate them from the issues that have been spoken about the team leading up to the tournament.
However, what I think contributed to the lackluster performance is the lack of discipline. Compared with the Japanese, our girls seemed ill disciplined with an entitled attitude. The other issue is the over usage of social media in camp. From my observation, our girls love social media too much which to an extent is warranted since they are young and have thousands of fans but the way most of our girls are spending time on TilTok is counter productive. Unregulated use of mobile phones in camp is destructive and can lead to a loss in concentration.
My appeal to Honourable Elvis Nkandu and other senior government officials who are in New Zealand with the team is to take steps to instill discipline in the Copper Queens camp.
Let them understand that they are in New Zealand to compete and they are not tourists. We don’t want to see Tik Tok videos of them dancing around the city. We want to see them perform on the pitch. Hon Nkandu, I propose that you ban the use of social media in camp, work with the Team Manager to regulate access to mobile phones for the entire duration of their stay at the tournament.
In case the girls have forgotten, remind them that they are carrying hopes and aspirations of over 20 million Zambians. We love our Queens and we want them to succeed. All the best on Wednesday against Spain.
Hon. Bowman Lusambo
Football Fan