{"id":7456,"date":"2012-02-24T09:13:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T09:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=7456"},"modified":"2012-02-24T09:13:20","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T09:13:20","slug":"malawi-miss-key-players-for-chad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/24\/malawi-miss-key-players-for-chad\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi miss key players for Chad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/flames1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/flames1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"flames\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6269\" \/><\/a>Malawi have been hit by injury worries a week before they begin their quest to qualify for next year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations finals.<\/p>\n<p>Three key players have been ruled out of their trip to Chad \u2013 captain Peter Mponda, defender Harry Nyirenda and midfielder Robert Ng\u2019ambi.<\/p>\n<p>They join a number of others who have been ruled out for other reasons, including vice-captain Elvis Kafoteka, who is in Thailand, and striker Russel Mwafulirwa, who has not been playing since leaving Sweden for South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>First-choice goalkeeper Swadick Sanudi is also unavailable.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Kinnah Phiri has therefore been forced to call-up just ten overseas-based players, with nine locally-based stars completing the squad \u2013 the greatest number in more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look at this as an opportunity for the local players and as a challenge for me,\u201d Phiri told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have belief in these young boys because any time they have been given a task to do, they have never disappointed me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading the main story<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cWe are not going there as angry people, we are going there to participate\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kinnah Phiri<br \/>\nMalawi coach<\/p>\n<p>Chad is where Malawi\u2019s hopes of reaching the 2012 Nations Cup faded,<\/p>\n<p>as they conceded a last-minute equaliser which allowed Tunisia<\/p>\n<p>to pip them in qualifying Group K.<\/p>\n<p>But Phiri says that has no bearing on what they can achieve next week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not going there as angry people, we are going there to participate properly and put our heads down \u2013 if we are angry we will make mistakes and [our opponents] will capitalise on them,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can tell you that away games are not easy \u2013 but through determination and hard work we can win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Malawi also face 2014 World Cup qualifiers later this year.<\/p>\n<p>They are in qualifying Group F for the global showpiece and will take on Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia from June this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malawi have been hit by injury worries a week before they begin their quest to qualify for next year\u2019s Africa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1643,768,378,1644,258,1128],"class_list":["post-7456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-chad","tag-flames","tag-football","tag-kinna-phiri","tag-malawi","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}