COPPER Queens coach Bruce Mwape Bruce Mwape has warned his players against getting carried away with the 3-2 win over Germany in an international friendly on Friday ahead of the World Cup.
Zambia was in over drive, seeing off the former world champions in their final preparatory match before they head into New Zealand to set base for the real work that lies ahead.
A father figure to the girls, Mwape has given wise counsel to his players that there is no need to get complacent because nothing has been achieved.
“It is [was] a practice match, but you know how it is. There will be a lot of comments, praising the players [but] all we want is to work on complacency because if they become complacent I think we will lose it out,” Mwape said.
Zambia has a tough run of fixtures in Group C where they will kick off with Japan before facing Spain and Costa Rica.
“We just want to focus on the games ahead of us so that we do well where we are going. We need to talk to them before it [the Germany win] gets to their heads that it’s like they have now won the World Cup,” Mwape said.
He hailed the players for the win.
“Beating Germany is good, Germany have won the World Cup before…we managed to beat them, it is an achievement but we need to make sure it doesn’t get to the heads of our players as if we have won the cup, we want to just stay focused,” Mwape said.
He said the focus should be beating Japan in the opening game on July 22.
“We need to be serious all the time so that when we start our first game, we should be able to make sure that we do well because if we mess up our first game, people will even forget the Germany game,” he said.
