Malawi national women football team coach Thom Mkorongo has said despite the 2-0 loss to Tanzania’s Twiga Stars on Saturday, there were positives drawn from the match.
Malawi were making a return on the international stage after two years of inactivity to rebuild.
“Despite the loss, there are a lot of positives drawn from the match.
“The girls played so well and we have seen where we need to improve. I am sure we have a good team,” said Mkorongo who described the match as a learning curve.
“This was only our first match and we need to play a number of friendly matches for the team to take shape.”
The Tanzania friendly was part of the team’s preparations for the Cosafa Cup to be hosted by Seychelles in March next year.
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda last week said they are also targeting Fifa rankings.
Currently, Nigeria lead the women’s rankings on the content followed by Cameroon while Equatorial Guinea is third and Ghana fourth.
South Africa, ranked fifth, is the best team in Cosafa bloc while Malawi is listed as one of the inactive teams.
Nyirenda said the international friendly was the team’s opportunity to re-launch international recognition.
“We officially informed Fifa about the international friendly as we wanted it to be fully recognised,” Nyirenda said.
“They have responded and this means the game will give us a chance of being ranked.”