Malawi vs Burkina Faso

The Flames of Malawi will play against The Stallions of Burkina Faso this Saturday at Kamuzu Stadium.

The day before The Flames were extinguished by Drogba and Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso squashed Guinea 4-2 in Ouagadougou. Malawi fans, who had their hopes deflated after 5-0 rout in Abidjan, are beginning to believe again after Malawi beat Rwanda 2-0 in a friendly match.

Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast made use of home ground advantage. The Flames too need to make use of home ground advantage. To be on the safe side The Flames will need to win by at least 3 goals. When it’s all said and done, most teams will win all their home games so goal difference will be important.

Malawi Squad

Burkina Faso Squad

The Flames just beat Rwanda 2-0 last week in a friendly match. Although friendlies provide a testing ground for teams, it is not good to dwell so much on the results. Most coaches use friendlies to test their tactics and also give players match practice. Booing even during a friendly game? A friendly game is a friendly game. It is what it is, match practice and not a competitive game. I pity my Zambian brother who thinks that Zambia will beat Rwanda by a wider margin just because Rwanda lost to minnows (The Flames). Football doesn’t work that way. Nevertheless, I would love to see The Flames play against the Chipolopolo Boys in the 2010 World Cup Finals.

I also pity someone who thinks that The Flames are done and dusted just because they lost 5-0. They just lost one out of six games. It’s not all doom and gloom.