DD Sunshine has started their run in the second edition of the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) National women’s Championship with a 4-0 victory over Northern Region-based Topik Sisters.
The 2021 runners-up, DD Sunshine played Topik Sisters on Sunday in Lilongwe at the newly renovated Civo Stadium, were they dominated Topik throughout. The scoring account was opened by Ireen Khumalo in 12th minute followed by her brace in the 44rd minute. Gladys Banda added another in additional time of the first half while Khumalo completed her hat trick in the 66th minute.
In a post-match interview Assistant Coach for DD Sunshine, Shadreck Chikhosi expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance and promised their supporters better quality throughout the competition.
“We are happy with the results. The girls trained so hard and it’s what we expected. The team will continue to improve, some of our players have gone outside the country to play elsewhere therefore we have fewer numbers but we shall figure it out,”
Chikhosi expressed joy with the team’s recent acquisition by Silver Strikers in fulfillment of Club licensing conditions set by FAM.
During the game, several Silver Strikers supporters were present supporting DD Sunshine.
“I would like to urge our supporters to come in large numbers to witness good football and we are happy that Silver Strikers has come to partner with us, “Chikhosi said.
On the other hand Coach of Topik Sisters Levi Muhone said his team will go back to the drawing board and work on their mistakes ahead of the next fixtures.
“DD Sunshine played good football, I noticed young players gave too much respect to our opponents. We conceded three goals in the first half very quickly but we played a much more balanced game in the second half,” Muhone said.
The competition was launched on 11th March at Mpira Stadium in Blantyre with a group A fixture that saw the defending Champions Nyasa Big Bullets beat Central Region’s Destiny Academy 2-0 with goals from Vanessa Chikupira and Tendai Sani. Ascent Academy beat Moyale 2-1 in Mzuzu with goals from Rose Kabzere and Catherine Gaudi while Idah Lanthenga scored for Moyale.
The match between Ntopwa and Evirom scheduled for Sunday at Mpira Stadium was postponed to March 14 due to adverse weather caused by Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
The championship has 10 teams divided into two groups. After playing single round-robin games in the group stages top teams from each group will qualify for semifinals and the champions are set to win Mk3 million.