Tag Archives: Malawi’s Flames players

Malawi, Sports

2025 COSAFA Cup: Flames’ semifinal hangs by thread, Mponda remains optimistic

Maravi Post Reporter

By Edwin Mbewe

BLOEMFONTEIN-(MaraviPost)-Malawi’s National Football team, the Flames, find their chances of qualifying for the 2025 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Men’s Senior Championship semifinals hanging by a thread after disappointing results in Group B.

The Flames kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 loss to Lesotho at Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein, followed by a goalless draw against the Brave Warriors of Namibia. Malawi’s hopes now hinge on their final Group B encounter this evening against reigning champions Angola’s Palancas Negras.

Despite the dire situation, assistant coach Peter Mponda remains defiant. “Indeed, our chances are very slim and hang by a thread, but that doesn’t mean we should not fight on,” the former Flames captain stated.

“We need to win with a good margin against Angola and then see what happens in the other game of the group. It’s a very tight situation for us, but not far from reachable, so we have to try and give it our best.”

Mponda highlighted improvements in the team’s play. “We have seen great improvement from the two games we have played thus far despite not getting a win. In our first game, we failed to penetrate into the box and create chances, which we did against Namibia. What we have told the boys is to convert those chances into goals.”

The Kalisto Pasuwa-coached side realistically needs to defeat group leaders Angola, who currently have four points, by at least four goals to have a shot at qualifying. However, even a convincing win might not be enough, as their fate also depends on the outcome of the other Group B fixture between Lesotho’s Crocodiles (Likuena) and Namibia’s Brave Warriors.

Currently, the Flames sit at the bottom of Group B with one point from two games and are yet to score a goal. Lesotho is second with three points, while Namibia is third with two points. Angola demonstrated their strength by defeating Lesotho 4-0 on Sunday, the same team Malawi lost to 1-0 in their opening match.

Meanwhile, Angola head coach Pedro Goncalves anticipates a challenging match against the Flames.

“We are expecting a tough match; we are respecting Malawi just like the other teams in the group,” said Goncalves. “We got a victory over Lesotho, who beat Malawi, but that doesn’t mean we will have an easy game against the Flames. It doesn’t work that way in football. But we are prepared and we’ll do all we can to beat them.”

Malawian defenders face a significant challenge in containing Angola’s Depu, who has been prolific, scoring four goals in the tournament, including a hat-trick against Lesotho.

Historically, Malawi has secured only one victory against Angola in their last seven meetings, with Angola winning three and three games ending in a draw.

Malawi, Sports

Malawi’s Flames manager Sangala touts Saudi Arabian camp

Maravi Post Reporter
Malawi’s Flames ready for Pharaohs on Friday

By Phillip Pasula

MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-Manager for the Malawi National Football Team, James Sangala, has said camping in Saudi Arabia has been a success as the team prepares to meet the Pharaohs of Egypt this Friday in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.

The Flames have arrived in Cairo, Egypt ahead of the Friday clash and the second leg will take place on Tuesday next week at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.

In Saudi Arabia, the Flames drew one all against lowly ranked Bangladesh before thumping a premier league side Al-Ansar, 8 nil.

Speaking to the local media, Sangala said Flames Coach Mario Marian Marinica had time to fine tune the Malawi squad in Arabia.

“It was a successful camp. The team has prepared well. I think we could have done a lot but as you will recall, the programme was shifted from 1 March because of the bonanza we had at home.

“From the two friendly matches we had, the coach has managed to work in areas that needed some attention. We would like thank Saudi Arabia for this whole arrangement,” remarked Sangala.

Foreign legion joining the squad in Egypt comprises of John Banda of UD Songo in Mozambique, Yamikani Chester and Chikoti Chirwa of Costa do Sol in Mozambique, Dennis Chembezi of Black Leopards in South Africa, Peter Banda from Simba Sporting Club in Tanzania, Charles Petro from Romania, Khuda Muyaba of Polokwane City in South Africa, Francisco Madinga from Botswana and Gabadihno Mhango of Amazulu in South Africa.

Flames Group log table

Players that have not made it to Egypt and have been sent back home from Saudi Arabia are Chiukepo Msowoya (because of injury), Nickson Mwase, Gilbert Chirwa, Chawanangwa Gumbo and Christopher Kumwembe.

Malawi which is in Group B; beat Ethiopia 2-1 at home on 5th July last year before losing away to Guinea by a 1 nil margin four days later (9th July, 202). On the other hand, Egypt beat Guinea 1 nil on 5th July, 2022 at home before losing 0-2 away to Ethiopia on July 9.

As it stands, all the four teams in the group have 3 points each but basing on goal difference, the log table shows Ethiopia on number one, followed by Malawi on number two. Guinea and Egypt are on positions 3 and 4, respectively.

Sports

Qurve Watch suppliers aids Malawi’s Flames players with wrist watches

Maravi Post Reporter

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Qurve Watch Suppliers, a South African based company on Thursday, March 17, 2022 extended gesture to Malawi National Football team, the Flames for its outstanding performance at the 2021 African Cup of Nations by handing 28 special designed wrist watches to Football Association of Malawi (FAM).

The gifts will be distributed among all 28 flames players who participated in the tournament.

Speaking during handover of the gifts, Country representative for Qurve Watch Peter Chetama, said flames performance at AFCON 2021 was promising and expects flames to qualify for bigger tournaments than AFCON.

Qurve Watch suppliers gives Flames players with wrist watches

FAM Chief Executive Officer Alfred Gunda attribute Flames outstanding performance to the unwavering support from the corporate sector and individuals when the flames was in Cameroon.

On her part sales and marketing representative for Qurve watch Tamanda Kadwa said that the company was impressed with Flames performance at tournament.

“Being the only team from the southern part Africa to have reached the round of sixteen remains a pride for us.

“This is why as a company which is based in Cape Town thought of designing special watches for the Flames as appreciation for their exceptional performance.” said Kadwa.

Curve Watch designs watches according to customer specifications, it also engraves names, put photos and more.

The design for the Flames was made for the flames was for the national players.

Malawi’s Flames were knocked out of AFCON 2021 round of 16 after beaten by Morocco.

Senegal were crown AFCON 2021 champion after beating Egypt in the finals.

Business, Malawi, Other Sports, Sports

FDH drills Flames players on investment

Lloyd M’bwana
Flames players listening attentively to the lecture

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-First Discount House Limited, a subsidiary of FDH Financial Holdings Limited on Thursday afternoon, June 10, 2021 drilled Malawi national football team players on how they can invest their earnings to prepare them for life after football.

This comes after FDH Bank, another subsidiary of FDH Financial Holdings Limited opened investment accounts worth MK100, 000 for each player as a token of appreciation for qualifying for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals.

FDH Senior Investment and Business Development Manager Tamanda Kapalamula said as the official sponsors of the Flames, they want to see the players sustain their living after retiring by investing their earnings.

“We pledged to give each player a seed capital of their investment with FDH Discount House worth MK100,000 for them to add on it and keep on investing so that they grow their income.

“We saw it wise to train them on how they can invest the money they are earning today to prepare them for life after retiring from playing football.

“Having an investment account will help the players to have a sustainable income source in future because football is a short-term career. One can even go into early retirement because of an injury hence the need for the players to invest their money”, he said.

South Africa-based striker Richard Mbulu said the talk has helped the players understand the importance of serving money for the future.

A First Discount House official (left) drilling Flames players on how they can invest their earnings

“It was a timely and very important talk to us. We have seen former players whom we used to admire failing to make ends meet because they failed to invest their earnings. But we have been privileged with such an opportunity to know the advantages of investing our money now.

“I personally will invest my money with FDH and I would like to urge my fellow players to do the same because this will help us and our families in the future,” said Mbulu.

FDH Bank provides an annual sponsorship of MK60 million to the Flames and recently launched the FDH Bank Cup worth MK450 million going for MK90 million a season for the next five seasons with the winner carting home a cool MK25 million, the biggest prize money for any local football competition in the country.