Another near miss for the Flames as they capitulated their 1-0 home win at the Bingu National Stadium a week ago in the CHAN qualifiers when they surrendered to a 2-0 painful loss to South Africa at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday.
Failure by the Malawi defenders to clear their lines gave chance to the home side of weaving passes through the heart of the defence with easy leaving Malawi goalie exposed and at the mercy of three South African attackers leading to the tie’s decider.
On an afternoon where fans donning red, green and black dominated the stadium with an ambience of thundering rolls from the stand, that gave Malawi of a feeling at home in a foreign land, the Flames were feeling confident of getting a positive result by avoiding a defeat by more than one goal.
The Flames, were breached in the early stages of the match conceding on 13 minutes against the run of play to a defensive lapse and held on-with post-match penalties on the horizon-only to concede again late in the match after Malawi’s defence failed to clear their lines.
Assistant coach Peter Mponda, standing in for gaffer Calisto Pasuwa who was diagnosed of chest problems on Saturday, entrusted Mighty Wanderers front man Promise Kamwendo to lead the attack alongside Silver Strikers’ Binwell Katinji.
South Africa were on the front foot searching for an early goal but the Flames defence marshalled by Maxwell Paipi held on the early forays by Bafana Bafana attacks mostly orchestrated from skipper Maema.
However, as the Flames looked to have weathered the storm and were starting to string passes from the midfield with Lloyd Aaron, Yankho Singo and Wize Mpinganjira making inroads into the Bafana Bafana’s defending third.
While the home side dominated in many areas, Malawi seemed to have organized their defensive act, thwarting South Africa’s incisive attacks with a few blistering counter-attacks but lacked numbers in attacking areas.
Twice or thrice Malawi’s goal minder George Chikooka was called into action to save the situation after the home side managed to get behind the visitors’ defence with crisp passing exploiting small spaces.
In his post-match interview Mponda said “The result doesn’t truly reflect the game. We played very well, especially in the second half where we dominated possession. Unfortunately, we gave away some easy goals.”
