Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
As we head towards Cosafa Cup 2015 that starts on Sunday in South Africa’s North West province, it is worth taking a look back at the competition that was staged two years ago in Zambia.
It was a superb event that highlighted the quality of teams in the South Africa region.
Zambia emerged as winners of Cosafa Cup 2013, a tournament they hosted in excellent fashion, to join Zimbabwe on four victories in the regional championship.
The 13-team field included guest nation Kenya, who filled in after Comoros Islands and Madagascar chose not to participate.
The format was the same as the 2009 event, with two first round groups, the winners of which advanced to the quarterfinals.
There they joined the six top ranked nations as per the Fifa World Rankings, namely Zambia, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
The late withdrawal of another guest nation, Tanzania, meant there were three teams in Group A – Namibia, Mauritius and Seychelles.
Namibia triumphed after back-to-back wins over Mauritius (2-1) and Seychelles (4-2), while the match between the two islanders ended 4-0 in favour of the Mauritians.
Group B was a lot tighter with just one point separating the top three teams in the end.
Lesotho eventually advanced on goal-difference having drawn with Kenya (2-2) and Botswana (3-3), before defeating Swaziland 2-0 in their final pool match.
Botswana also got five points but were perhaps left to rue an opening 0-0 draw with Swaziland that likely cost them in place in the knockout stages.
Kenya were third in the pool with four points as they beat Swaziland (2-0) but could not effect wins in their other games.
Botswana’s Jerome Ramatlhakwane, who would finish top-scorer at the tournament with four goals, scored the competition’s only hat-trick in the 3-3 draw with Lesotho.
The quarterfinals were tense affairs with Zimbabwe and Lesotho edging Malawi and Angola in penalty shootouts after a pair of 1-1 draws.
South Africa defeated Namibia 2-1 after goals from Hlompho Kekana and Jabulani Shongwe to book their semifinal spot, while Zambia found the going easier as they beat Mozambique 3-1.
The 2013 tournament saw the introduction of a Plate competition to ensure that those teams knocked out in the quarterfinals got to play more than one match.
This secondary event was won by Mozambique, who beat Namibia and Angola, both by 1-0 scorelines, on their way to the victory.
The semifinals of the main event were also closely fought. Zimbabwe came from an early goal down to beat Lesotho 2-1. Motlalepula Mofolo had put Lesotho ahead, but Tendai Ndoro bagged a brace of goals to swing the game in Zimbabwe’s favour.
South Africa and Zambia could not be separated after 120 minutes and went to a penalty shootout that was eventually won by the home side 5-3.
It set up a repeat of the 2009 final, but this time Zambia ran out winners as Alex N’gonga’s excellent early goal put them on the front foot and Kabasa Chongo added a second late on to seal the win.