John Kaputa : I am not disappointed - 2009

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John Kaputa : I am not disappointed

11-09-2009

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Malawi Under-17 coach John Kaputa has said the positives outweigh the negatives from his teams experience at the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria recently despite his teams preliminary group stage elimination from the competition.

Malawi finished bottom of Group E without a point following three straight defeats and scored just one goal in the 270 minutes of action in their debut FIFA Under-17 World Cup outing.

"I think Malawi's performance at the World Cup was very good," Kaputa said in an interview from his base in Malawi upon returning from Nigeria.

Kaputa said the only thing the team lack was potency in attack as shown by the lone goal they scored at the tournament and were also left deficient in attack especially with the dismissal of Gastin Simkonda in Malawi's opening game against UAE that saw him miss his sides penultimate group match against the USA.

"We only lacked the firing power in front of goal we did not have the numerical advantage there, but our midfield and defence were strong," he said.

Kaputa added that the goals conceded came via unnecessary errors and that went on to affect Malawi's tempo in the three games they played.

"In the game against UAE we played very well but the goalkeeper did not judge the first goal well and the second goal scored from longrange affected the team also," he said.

Malawi lost 2-0 to UAE before going down 1-0 to the USA and 4-1 to Spain in their final match.

However, Kaputa said the team had a bright future and that the next Malawi under-20 team should be built around the Malawi Under-17 that was led by the impressive midfielder and captain Bruno Milanzi

"We need to sit down and see how we can keep these players together," he said.

"Some players can be part of the COSAFA Youth Championship in South Africa next month or we should build the Under-20 team around this team," Kaputa said.

Malawi qualified to this years FIFA Under-17 World Cup after finishing fourth at the CAF Africa Under-17 Championship in Algeria earlier in March.

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