Cosafa tournament off to a good start

The Barea, Madagascar’s national soccer team, set the tone for the 2018 Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) tournament on Sunday when they defeated tournament favourite Mozambique 2-1 in the opening match at the old Peter Mokaba Stadium in host city Polokwane.
Luis Miquissone scored for the Os Mambas while Tokifandresena Andriamanjato and Andriamirano Andrianarimanana converted in each half of the match to give their team a hard fought victory.
Andrianarimanana, who was named Man of the Match for his superb performance on the day, said the victory against Mozambique will motivate them to continue working hard throughout the tournament.
“Mozambique is a good team and it was not an easy victory. We still have other matches to play and we want to do well in the tournament,” Andrianarimanana said.
Abel Xavier, Mozambique’s head coach said they could have won had they not lacked conviction throughout the match.
“We were not determined enough as we should have been to make things happen. We had a strategy for this game, but it looked as if we were not so keen in the first half.
“Our structure was not compact enough and were lacking some intensity. We made the structures up in our game plan but if you have a lack of intensity, you give opportunity to your opponents,” Xavier said.
Despite the smaller than expected turnout of spectators MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Onicca Moloi, who was at the opening match of the tournament, said they were satisfied with the attendance at the stadium.
“Everything went well on the day and we are still urging soccer loving people to attend the rest of matches. There will also be matches at Seshego Stadium and we are looking forward to those as well,” Moloi said.

Story and photos: Herbert Rachuene
>>herbert.observer@gmail.com

Below is the list of remaining fixtures for the tournament:

Today 17:30 M9 Madagascar vs Comoros Old Peter Mokaba
(Thursday)
Today 17:30 M10 Mozambique vs Seychelles Seshego Stadium
01/06 – 17:30 M11 Botswana vs Mauritius Old Peter Mokaba
01/06 – 17:30 M12 Angola vs Malawi Seshego Stadium

Quarterfinals
02/06 – 15:00 M13 Zambia vs Namibia Old Peter Mokaba
02/06 – 17:30 M14 Lesotho vs Swaziland Old Peter Mokaba
03/06 – 15:00 M15 South Africa vs Winner of Group A Old Peter Mokaba
03/06 – 17:30 M16 Zimbabwe vs Winner of Group B Old Peter Mokaba

Plate semifinals
05/06 – 17:00 M17 Loser M13 vs Loser M15 Old Peter Mokaba
05/06 – 19:30 M18 Loser M14 vs Loser M16 Old Peter Mokaba

Cup semi-finals
06/06 – 17:00 M19 Winner M13 vs Winner M15 New Peter Mokaba
06/06 – 19:30 M20 Winner M14 vs Winner M16 New Peter Mokaba

Plate final
08/06 – 17:00 M21 Winner M17 vs Winner M18 New Peter Mokaba

Third-place play-off
08/06 – 19:30 M22 Loser M19 vs Loser M20 New Peter Mokaba

Cup final
09/06 – 15:00 M23 Winner M19 vs Winner M20 New Peter Mokaba