The Copper Queens have held their first training session in Miyagi, Japan ahead of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020 Group F opener against Netherlands on 21 July.

The Olympic debutants were hard at work at the Izumi Soccer Field – West with head coach Bruce Mwape taking charge of the session which kicked off at 19:30hours local time.

After Netherlands, the Copper Queens have a fixture against China on 24 July before facing Brazil in their final group F fixture three days later.

Skipper Barbara Banda is expected to lead the campaign for the Copper Queens together with Grace Chanda who was the top scorer with 8 goals during the African Olympic qualifiers.

The tournament will kick-off two days before the official opening of the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics and matches will be spread out throughout the Olympics until 6 August, 2021.

Soka25east.com