Local players to get the nod

Local players to get the nod

Malawi national football team coach, Kinnah Phiri has hinted that he might give the chance to local players in the game against Ghana, as he was not impressed with the performance of his professional players in the friendly against Liberia.

Malawi lost against Liberia in an international friendly on 4^th sepetember,2012  ,the flames failed to put behind their ghosts of conceding in last minutes as they  went down to an 88^th minute goal to narrowly lose 1-0 to Liberia.

Coach Kinnah Phiri, surprised the fans as he put south African based, out of form players Atusaye Nyondo and Peter Wadabwa in the starting lineup leaving out an inform Gabadinho Mhango and robin ngalande on the bench.

The flames were the better side in the first half as they boasted a lion’s share of ball possession, and they defended tightly. Despite defending solid and having plenty of possession, the flames lacked the cutting edge to find the openings in the Liberians defense and feed their strikers..

With less than 10 minutes left in the first half Malawi made an early substitution by taking off Atusaye Nyondo who had a quite game, and was replaced by Gabadinho Mhango.

In the second half, in a fight to find a goal the flames made a double substitution by taking of Joseph Kamwendo and Peter Wadabwa and bring on Robert Ng’ambi and Jimmy Zakazaka. However that did not change anything as the flames still struggled to find the breakthrough.

The only time Malawi came closest to opening the scoring it was on 65^th minute, when Robert Ng’ambi headed Moses Chavula’s free kick inches wide.

On the other hand, just after the hour mark Liberia started dominating the proceedings and started going to Malawi’s half wave after wave. Thanks to simplex Nthala who was in top form, he superbly helped to keep Malawi into the game by making two one- on- one saves in quick succession.

Liberia broke the deadlock on 88^th minute after some sloppy defending by Malawi’s defense. Flames coach Kinnah Phiri was impressed with the effort put by his players but he revealed that some professional prayers are not fully fit.

‘We played well today and I am impressed with the performance more especially with the local players. Some professional players it seems that they are not fully fit and that might force me to use more local players in Ghana game.” he hinted.