Mozambique national football team

Mozambique

Nickname(s)	Os Mambas
Association	Mozambique Football Federation
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Sub-confederation	COSAFA (Southern Africa)
Head coach	Abel Xavier
Captain	Dominguês
Top scorer	Tico-Tico (27)[1]
Home stadium	Estádio do Zimpeto
FIFA code	MOZ
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	108 13 (24 November 2016)
Highest	66 (November 1997)
Lowest	134 (July 2005, September 2006)
Elo ranking
Current	118 3
Highest	85 (September 1985)
Lowest	147 (July 2000)
First international
Mozambique 1–2 Tanzania  (Mozambique; 12 December 1977)
Biggest win
Mozambique 6–1 Lesotho  (Mozambique; 10 August 1980)  Mozambique 5–0 South Sudan  (Mozambique; 18 May 2014)
Biggest defeat
Zimbabwe 6–0 Mozambique (Salisbury, Zimbabwe; 20 April 1980)
Africa Cup of Nations
Appearances	4 (first in 1986)
Best result	Group stage, 1986, 1996, 1998 and 2010

The Mozambique national football team (Portuguese: Seleção Moçambicana de Futebol), popularly known as Os Mambas, represents Mozambique in association football and is controlled by the Federação Moçambicana de Futebol, the governing body for football in Mozambique. Mozambique have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, but they have qualified for four Africa Cup of Nations in 1986, 1996, 1998 and most recently the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, being eliminated in the first round in all four. Mozambique are currently ranked 116th in the FIFA World Rankings, with their highest ever ranking of 66th in November 1996.

Mozambique's home ground is Estádio do Zimpeto in the capital city Maputo, and can hold 45,000 spectators. The team's current head coach is the former Portugal international Abel Xavier, who has been in charge since February 2016.^[2]

History

First game

Mozambique played its first match against Tanzania in 1977, losing the match 2–1. They first qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations in 1986, but were knocked out in the first round. Mozambique never qualified for another 10 years until 1996. Again being knocked out in the first round of the tournament.

1986 African Nations Cup

Mozambique qualified for its first Africa Cup of Nations in 1986, held in Egypt, beating Mauritius 3–0 in the preliminary round. In the first round of qualifying, Mozambique played Malawi, drawing both legs of the match, they eventually won 6–5 on penalties. In the second round of qualifying they played Libya, losing the first leg 2–1. They won the second leg 2–1 and then went on to win the match 4–3 on penalties, Qualifying for the tournament.

Mozambique were placed in Group A along with Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and hosts Egypt. They lost all their games 3–0, 2–0 and 2–0, not scoring a single goal. Egypt went on to win the tournament on home soil.

1996 African Cup of Nations

Mozambique had to wait 10 years to qualify for another Africa Cup of Nations, as they qualified for the 1996 tournament in South Africa. They were placed in Group D along with Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Tunisia. Mozambique played their first game against Tunisia in Port Elizabeth, drawing 1–1 with Tico-Tico scoring in the 4th minute. They then went on to lose 1–0 to Côte d'Ivoire and 2–0 to Ghana, thus eliminating them from the tournament.

1998 African Cup of Nations

Two years later, Mozambique qualified for their third Africa Cup of Nations held in Burkina Faso. They were again placed in group D along with Morocco, Egypt and Zambia. Mozambique lost their first game against eventual tournament winners Egypt 2–0, both goals coming from Hossam Hassan. In their second game they again lost to Morocco 3–0, therefore eliminating them from the tournament with one game still remaining. In their last game against Zambia, they drew 1–1, their first goal of the tournament. This would prove to be their last African Cup of Nations game for 12 years.

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Mozambique entered the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification in the second round, and were placed in Group 7 with Botswana, Madagascar and African football giants Côte d'Ivoire. They made a terrible start to qualifying, losing to Côte d'Ivoire and minnows Botswana 1–0 and 2–1, and drawing 1–1 with Madagascar. Mozambique then went on to beat Madagascar 3–0 in Antananarivo with goals coming from Tico-Tico, Carlitos and Domingues. They then drew 1–1 with Côte d'Ivoire and beat Botswana 1–0 in Gaborone to qualify for the third Round.

Mozambique were one of the lowest seeded teams in the third round, and were placed in Group B with Nigeria, Tunisia and Kenya. They went on to draw their first game against giants Nigeria 0–0 in Maputo. They then went on to lose their next to games against Tunisia and Kenya 2–0 and 2–1, now making it a struggle to qualify for their first FIFA World Cup. In the next game, they beat Kenya 1–0 with Tico-Tico scoring, but then a loss to Nigeria eliminated them from qualifying. In the last game they beat Tunisia 1–0 in a surprising victory that stopped Tunisia from qualifying. Despite not qualifying for the World Cup they still qualified for the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola.

2010 African Cup of Nations

After a 12-year absence from African Cup of Nations football, Mozambique were placed in Group C with Egypt, Nigeria and Benin. In their first game, they played Benin Benguela drawing 2–2 after being 2–0 down, with goals coming from Miro and Fumo. They then went on to lose 2–0 to eventual tournament winners Egypt and 3–0 to Nigeria, thus eliminating them from the tournament. After the tournament, all-time top scorer and captain Tico-Tico retired from international football.

2012 African Cup of Nations

Mozambique were drawn in Group C for 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying along with Libya, Zambia and Comoros. They drew 0–0 with Libya in their first game and followed it up with 1–0 win away to the Comoros. But two straight losses of 2–0 (home) and 3–0 (away) to Zambia left The Black Mambas qualification hopes in tatters. Failure to qualify was confirmed with a third straight defeat in a 1–0 away loss to Libya. They would finish their campaign with a moral restoring 3–0 home drubbing of the Comoros.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Zambia	6	4	1	1	11	2	+9	13
Libya	6	3	3	0	6	1	+5	12
Mozambique	6	2	1	3	4	6	−2	7
Comoros	6	0	1	5	2	14	−12	1

2013 African Cup of Nations

For the 2013 edition of the African Cup of Nations, Mozambique was drawn against Tanzania in the First Round of qualifying. After a 2–2 aggregate draw over two legs they defeated Tanzania 7–6 in the ensuing penalty shootout, recovering from missing their first two penalties. With their victory, Mozambique progressed to the Second Round of qualifying where they will be drawn from Pot 2 which houses teams ranked 16th – 30th.

2014 FIFA World Cup

Mozambique entered the 2014 FIFA World Cup CAF qualification process in the First Round. For the First Round they were seeded in Pot 1 and were drawn against the Comoros. They won both legs of the tie, opening with a hard-fought 1–0 away win before comprehensively outclassing the islanders 4–1 in the home leg. With the win, they secured their passage to the Second Round where they were seeded in Pot 4 for the draw. Mozambique were drawn in Group G, along with African powerhouse Egypt, Southern Africa neighbours Zimbabwe and West Africans Guinea. They opened their group campaign with a 2–0 away loss to group favourites Egypt before returning home and earning a point against Zimbabwe in a goalless draw. They then drew with Guinea, before a disappointing 6–1 loss to Guinea in the return fixture that eliminated them from the competition.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Egypt	6	6	0	0	16	7	+9	18
Guinea	6	3	1	2	12	8	+4	10
Mozambique	6	0	3	3	2	10	−8	3
Zimbabwe	6	0	2	4	4	9	−5	2

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1930 to 1978	Did not enter
1982	Did not qualify
1986	Did not enter
1990	Entry rejected
1994 to 2018	Did not qualify
2022	To be determined
Total		0/21

African Nations Cup record

African Cup of Nations
Titles: 0 Appearances: 4
Year	Position		Year	Position		Year	Position		Year	Position
1957	Did not enter		1976	Did not enter		1994	Did not qualify		2012	Did not qualify
1959	Did not enter		1978	Did not enter		1996	Round 1		2013	Did not qualify
1962	Did not enter		1980	Did not enter		1998	Round 1		2015	Did not qualify
1963	Did not enter		1982	Did not qualify		2000	Did not qualify
1965	Did not enter		1984	Did not qualify		2002	Did not qualify
1968	Did not enter		1986	Round 1		2004	Did not qualify
1970	Did not enter		1988	Did not qualify		2006	Did not qualify
1972	Did not enter		1990	Did not qualify		2008	Did not qualify
1974	Did not enter		1992	Did not qualify		2010	Round 1

Recent results

South Africa  v  Mozambique

11 January 2014 2014 African Nations Championship	South Africa	3–1	Mozambique	Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
18:00	Parker  30' (pen.), 82' Kekana  58'	Report	Diogo  11'	Attendance: 26,328 Referee: Gehad Grisha, (Egypt)

Nigeria  v  Mozambique

15 January 2014 2014 African Nations Championship	Nigeria	4–2	Mozambique	Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
20:00	Ede  11' Ali  13', 54' (pen.) Imenger  88'	Report	Khan  10' Diogo  20'	Attendance: 18,407 Referee: Aboubacar Mario Bangoura, (Guinea)

Mozambique  v  Mali

19 January 2014 2014 African Nations Championship	Mozambique	1–2	Mali	Athlone Stadium, Cape Town
19:00	Josemar  38'	Report	Sidibé  48' Traoré  90+3' (pen.)	Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Mutaz Abdelbasit Khairalla, (Sudan)

Mozambique  v  Angola

5 March 2014 International friendly	Mozambique	1–1	Angola	Estádio Nacional do Zimpeto, Maputo
16:00	Pelembe  65'	Report	Vado  21'	Referee: Wellington Kaoma, (Zambia)

Mozambique  v  South Sudan

18 May 2014 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualificiation	Mozambique	5–0	South Sudan	Estádio do Zimpeto, Maputo
16:00	Josemar  13' Mexer  40' Sonito  45+2', 54' Isac  84'	Report		Referee: Denis Batte, (Uganda)

Morocco  v  Mozambique

23 May 2014 International friendly	Morocco	4–0	Mozambique	Estádio de São Luís, Faro
19:00	El Kaddouri  29' El-Arabi  36', 88' Chahechouhe  64'	Report		Referee: Hugo Miguel, (Portugal)

South Sudan  v  Mozambique

30 May 2014 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualificiation	South Sudan	0–0	Mozambique	Khartoum Stadium, Khartoum
14:00		Report		Referee: Thierry Nkurunziza, (Burundi)

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Tanzania on 20 July 2014.^[3]
Caps and goals as of 20 July 2014.

0#0	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	GK	Victor Soares	9 February 1984	10	0	Costa do Sol
	GK	Ricardo Campos	14 July 1985	7	0	União Madeira
	GK	Milagre	28 October 1991	0	0	Liga Muçulmana
	DF	Miró	30 April 1982	61	7	Bravos do Maquis
	DF	Dario Khan	24 January 1981	44	2	Costa do Sol
	DF	Mexer	8 September 1987	28	1	Rennes
	DF	Zainadine Júnior	24 June 1988	23	0	Tianjin Teda
	DF	Dito	2 April 1986	3	0	Costa do Sol
	DF	Reinildo Mandava	21 January 1994	1	0	Benfica B
	DF	Boné Uaferro	4 January 1992	0	0	Fortuna Köln
	DF	Jeffrey Obst	25 November 1993	0	0	Schwarz-Weiß Rehden
	DF	Gelício Banze	15 June 1994	0	0	Meuselwitz
	MF	Domingues (Captain)	13 November 1983	51	10	Mamelodi Sundowns
	MF	Momed Hagi	29 May 1985	42	2	Liga Muçulmana
	MF	Josemar Machaísse	7 August 1987	36	5	Bravos do Maquis
	MF	Simão Mate Junior	23 July 1988	32	0	Levante
	MF	Saddan Guambe	25 May 1984	20	0	Liga Muçulmana
	MF	Telinho	15 October 1988	18	0	Liga Muçulmana
	MF	Eduardo Jumisse	6 June 1984	13	0	Primeiro de Agosto
	FW	Sonito	10 August 1985	17	5	Bravos do Maquis
	FW	Hélder Pelembe	20 September 1987	16	0	Orlando Pirates
	FW	Manuel Uetimane	30 April 1989	16	0	Costa do Sol
	FW	Mário Sinamunda	27 September 1990	14	1	Ferroviário Beira
	FW	Maninho	30 March 1991	11	2	Minerva
	FW	Reginaldo	4 June 1990	8	0	Luftetari
	FW	Clésio Baúque	11 October 1994	7	2	Benfica B
	FW	Isac Carvalho	27 June 1989	4	3	Maxaquene

Previous squads

Africa Cup of Nations

• 1986 African Cup of Nations squads – Mozambique
• 1996 African Cup of Nations squads – Mozambique
• 1998 African Cup of Nations squads – Mozambique
• 2010 Africa Cup of Nations squads – Mozambique

Honours

• COSAFA Cup: 1

• 2013 (Plate Winners)

References

1. Földesi, László. "Manuel José Luis "Tico-Tico" Bucuane – Goals in International Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
2. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35408438
3. "Clésio Bauque regressa aos Mambas". Desafio. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.

External links

• Federação Moçambicana de Futebol (Portuguese)
• Mozambique at FIFA.com
• Mozambique at CAF Online