Saturday, September 5, 2009

Msowoya's 2 goals give Malawi Flames lifeline

Flames players celebrating after the match. Pic exclusively by Malawi Digest.

By Chifundo Gama
At Kamuzu Stadium, Blantyre

There are wild celebrations in Malawi’s main cities and urban centres following the Flames exciting win against the Guinea’s Syli Nationale in the 2010 Group E Nations Cup qualifiers campaign.

The Malawi national side, have made proud any Malawian of goodwill following their 2-1 triumph over the visiting West Africans.

The giant Kamuzu Stadium in the commercial city, Blantyre was filled to capacity as thousands upon thousands of people were optimistic that the Flames would carry the day despite their recent dismal performance in the same competition.

The match itself kicked off at 3:00 pm and the visiting team seem to have settled in earlier than the hosts.

No wonder the Syli Nationale were the first to score in the first half through Oumar Kalabane in the 37th minute and held on to their win until the half-time.

Flames coach Kinnah Phiri did a soul searching and introduced Malawi’s striker of the moment, Chiukepo Msowoya.

When play resumed for the second half, it took Msowoya only 45 seconds to score Malawi’s equaliser sending the entire stadium into a celebration mood.

The Guineans tried to come back into the match by piling all their players into the Flames half but this did not help matters.

15 minutes later, Malawi’s wonderboy Chiukepo Msowoya was on target again after being put through by Joseph ‘Shakira’ Kamwendo.

The 2-1 lead meant more pressure on the Flames as the West Africans tried to equalise to increase their chances of making it at least to Nations Cup finals next year.

However, Flames mentor Kinnah Phiri played his cards well and made some changes that gave the visitors no chance to reply back.

Four minutes of added time looked like a year to the enthusiastic crowd in Kamuzu Stadium but the referee from Benin blew the whistle marking the end of the match in Blantyre.

Thousands of people are hooting their vehicles, chanting and singing on the country’s main streets.

Flames coach Kinnah Phiri says that today’s win by his boys has given any Malawian hope of making it to the Nations Cup next year.

“Our boys put in a lot into today’s match against Guinea and that God heard our cry and prayers,” he told Malawi Digest after the match.

The coach also attributed the team’s win to their recent camp in Denmark where the Flames played some of the country’s top league sides.

Although the Flames lost in some matches, they also managed to win some which was a very big plus for an African team to beat some of the well financed professional teams of Europe-Malawi Digest.

3 comments:

  1. congratulations and good work malawi Digest. you are thousands of miles ahead ot the stupid Nyasatimes

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  2. Hoza Hoza ma flames keep it up

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  3. flames woyee!!!This is what we needed ana a Mose.Agola is yours just fight hard.Ngati tinapha Egypt ka ka Drogba ndikachani?We will make to Angola never mind.God bless the flames.

    ReplyDelete