ZAMBIA U20 coach Aaron Kawanga says they are using the REGION 5 COSAFA tournament to prepare for this year’s World Cup.

Zambia has sent the U17 squad to the men’s Under-20 football competitions at the Region 5 Games as they use the opportunity to prepare their teams that will compete in their respective FIFA Under-17 World Cups later this year.

Kawangu said the tournament will give the team a proper preparations ahead of the world cup to be played in Qatar from November 3-27,where Zambia was drawn in Group H at the tournament along with Brazil, Honduras and Indonesia, with the top two in each pool advancing to the knockout stage, along with the eight best third-placed teams.

“This is a very crucial tournament for the U17 we all know it’s the U20 tournament but we given this opportunity to prepare for the World Cup so we take this tournament very serious;”he said. “First game very important just like any other tournament and we want to see that we start on a high note so that we set the tone for the tournament.”

“The teams target is to resist in as match as we can because we know that we are playing a three old cup age group as we are U17 and we playing in the U20 and it will be very crucial to se how long can we resist.”

Zambia is in Group B alongside reigning COSAFA champions South Africa, Eswatini and Botswana. The top two teams in each of the pools advance to the semifinals.

“Playing South Africa has always been a tricky game but we have played them a couple of games before and we believe it will be a good game and it will be nice to see how to handle the game,it will be tough but we are ready for the game.”

And team captain James Sibeene said the target is to win the tournament. “Our target is to make mother Zambia proud,it’s important for us to win the first game because it will show us where we are going,” he said. “The mood in Camp is high and we are boosting each other our target as a team is to win the trophy.”