COSAFA Women Champioship is an association football tournament for teams from southern Africa organised by Council of southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA).
There have been five previous COSAFA Women Championships since the first was played in 2002.
The inaugural COSAFA Women Championship was staged in Zimbabwe from April 19-28 and was to feature nine teams before Mauritius withdrew.
South Africa and hosts Zimbabwe were always going to be the favourites. It was the two who met in the final.
Zimbabwe topped Group A as they claimed a record 15-0 victory over Lesotho, to go with wins against Zambia (4-0) and Malawi (6-0).
The Zambians managed to fill the runner-up spot.
SA were even more emphatic in their pool stage campaign as they claimed victories over Botswana (14-0), a game in which Veronica Phewe scored 8 goals, Mozambique (13-0) and Swaziland (4-0). Mozambique picked up the runner-up position in Group B.
Zimbabwe made short work of Mozambique in their semi-final with 11-1 victory. SA had it much tougher with 3-1 success against Zambia in the other semi-final.
That set up a final at Rufaro Stadium, won by SA with goals from Veronica Phewe and Portia Modise. Zambia took the bronze medal when Julia Siame scored the only goal as they beat Mozambique 1-0 in the third-place play off.
SA retained their title in the second edition of the COSAFA Women Championship, which this time was played in Zambia in 2006.
There were nine entrants, but when Mozambique withdrew the field was again cut to eight, though it was still played in three groups.
Zambia and Namibia qualified for the semi-finals from Group A as they managed four points, respectively.
They opened their campaign with a 2-2 draw against each other, before Zambia beat Swaziland 7-0 and Namibia managing 6-0 win over Swaziland.
In Group B, SA won all of their matches as they defeated Lesotho 9-0 and Malawi 3-0 to top the pool. Phewe and Modise were among the goal scorers, as well as Joanne Solomon, who managed a hatrick in the first game.
With Mozambique out, Group C was reduced to two teams, so Zimbabwe and Angola essentially played over two legs with the Zimbabweans winning 3-1 and 1-0 to advance as pool winners.
South Africa were too strong in the semi-finals, winning 4-1 over Zimbabwe. Namibia edged Zambia on penalties after the two teams had played to a one-all draw.
Zambia took the bronze medal as they beat Zimbabwe 2-1 in the play-off. SA fell behind to a Rita Williams goal for Namibia in the final. Soth Africans Modise and Kylie-Anne Louw netted as they roared back to claim goals.
SA sent their Under-20 side to the 2008 COSAFA Women Championship in Angola because of a clash of fixtures for the senior national side. They still managed to come home with the gold medal.
SA had been placed in a tough group, but relatively came through unscathed as they beat Botswana 5-0, Zimbabwe 2-1 and Zambia 7-3.
That set up a final against the hosts Angola when Matlou shone again as her hat-trick saw South Africa win their third straight gold, keeping their grip on the regional showpiece trophy.
Hosts Zimbabwe became the first side to break SA’s hold on the COSAFA Women Championship when they picked up the trophy on home soil in 2011.
The tournament was played at two venues across Harare and included East African guest nation Tanzania.
Zimbabwe breezed through Group A as they claimed three wins from three against Lesotho (4-0), Malawi (8-2) and Mozambique (3-0). They were joined up in the semi-final by Malawi, who took the runner-up spot in the pool.
SA also had a perfect record in the pool stages as they claimed wins over Zambia (4-1), Botswana (4-0) and Tanzania 1-0.
Zimbabwe were hosts of the tournament again in 2017 and made it all the way to the final, only to come unstuck against SA who regained the trophy from their old foe.
Noko Matlou of South Africa scored 12 goals in 2008, Rufaro Machingura of Zimbabwe 8 goals in 2011 with Zimabawe’s Rutendo Makore topping 2017 with 10 goals.
SA are the defending champions in the COSAFA Women Championship, having claimed the title last year with a 2-1 win over Zimbabwe in the final in Bulawayo.
COSAFA Women Championship got underway in Nelson Mandela Bay, SA as the best southern, Central, East Africa clash in what promises to be a hugely entertaining 10 days of thrilling soccer action.
The Mighty Warriors are in Group C.
— Source: www.cosafa.com