African Club will face Olympic experienced side in Paris 24 opener

Zambia will face Four-Times Olympic Champions in their Olympic Paris 2024 opener.

Zambia will be up against perhaps the difficult possible start to an Olympic Games campaign when they will face four-time champions the United State of America in their Group B opener that will take place at Stade de Nice on the evening of Thursday 25th July and Kick off is set at 9pm CAT.

Zambia will be hoping to collect a maximum of three (3)points or even a point against U.S.A and they are looking forward to advance to the next round of the competition. Zambia will need to defeat other two nations on their Group-B such as Australia on 28th July and Germany on 31 July.

Zambia(Copper Queens) made their first appearance at the Olympics in 1976 and 1980 even though they boycotted the 1976 Montreal Games due to the Political reasons. Copper Queens will be hoping to break the record that was set by the generation of 1988 when they managed to reach the quarter-finals of the competition.

The last time when Zambia participate in Women’s Football tournament at the Olympic it was in Tokyo 2020. They were eliminated in the group stages in Japan after finishing on a third spot behind number two which was Netherlands and Brazil ,while the team that finished on fourth spot was China.

On their journey for Paris2024 the Copper Queens defeated Ghana together with Morocco in the qualifiers and will be hoping that players such as Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji will be up to the task as they did during the qualifiers. And they also hope that the two players will provide some inside information about the players of U.S.A, as they both play their football in the country.

Before their opening game against U.S.A, Zambia managed to play friendly match early on this month against New Zealand where they played to a draw of 1-1, with a goal scored by Rhoda Chileshe and New Zealand equalized by Katie Kitching.

United Stated secured the Bronze Medal at the last Games in Tokyo and are four-times Olympics champions after clinching the Gold Medals in 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012. They have a lot of experienced players and coach Emma Hayes will be determined to make a mark at these games as it will be her first major tournament as a coach.

BY LUCKY SEANEGO