Malawi Finishes Third at COSAFA Beach Soccer Championships
Malawi's bronze medal performance at the regional tournament in Durban marks a positive step for the sport's development in the southeast African nation.
DURBAN, South Africa — Malawi's beach soccer national team secured a bronze medal at the 2024 COSAFA Beach Soccer Championships after defeating Saudi Arabia 5-4 in a tightly contested third-place match on Saturday, writes Happy Valirani.
Captain Isaac Jamu and O'Brien Nkhumbula each scored two goals for Malawi, while Dala Simba added one and earned man of the match honors at the South Beach Arena.
"I'm very excited, but I would like to say I'm grateful to God, no one gave us a chance that we could beat Saudi Arabia considering the squad which we brought," said head coach Willy Kumilambe.
"Most of our players do not have much experience compared to the opponents we were meeting, but we are very happy that we finished third."
Jamu shared the tournament's Golden Boot award with Mozambique's Antonio Jose Pedro Namape Jr., who was also named player of the tournament.
In the final, Morocco was crowned champions after defeating Mozambique 4-3 on penalties following a 4-4 draw.
Despite the limited squad of just 10 players, Kumilambe expressed optimism about Malawi's beach soccer future.
"We have a good team that just needs a lot of investment. You could see that other teams had deep squads, we were limited in terms of substitutes because our squad wasn't that deep," the coach said.
Malawi's bronze medal performance at the regional tournament in Durban marks a positive step for the sport's development in the southeast African nation.