Zambia captain Barbra Banda had four records punctured as the Copper Queens were defeated 10-3 by the Netherlands in Wednesday’s Olympic Games encounter.
In her debut appearance in the tournament, the Shanghai Shengli striker — her team’s brightest light – carved her name in the competition’s history books.
The Dutch Lionesses led 3-0 after 15 minutes at Rifu’s Miyagi Stadium, and the 21-year-old narrowed the deficit for her team in the 19th minute.
Banda fired the ball past goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal after receiving a pass from Esther Siamfuko.
In the process, she made history by being the first Zambian to score in a women’s football competition.
Her debut was marred by Vivianne Miedema’s hat-trick, which gave the Europeans a 6-1 lead at halftime, with Lieke Martens also scoring twice.
The Lionesses maintained their goal-scoring spree in the second half, racing to a 10-1 lead with ten minutes remaining.
Nonetheless, the China-based star had reason to celebrate after scoring her team’s second and third goals in the 82nd and 83rd minutes to reach three more milestones.
Following her treble, Banda became the first African and Zambian to score three goals in her maiden game at the quadrennial sports festival.
In addition, she surpassed Nigeria’s Mercy Akide and Perpetua Nkwocha, who are tied on two goals apiece, to become the tournament’s highest African goalscorer.
She remained on the field from start to finish as the Southern African team suffered their worst defeat in history.
That surpassed their previous best of 6-0 defeat against Nigeria in an Africa Women’s Cup of Nations match played at Windhoek’s Sam Nujoma Stadium on October 14, 2014.
They will look to get back on track when they face China PR in a Group F match on July 24. In their first game, the Asians were thrashed 5-0 by Brazil.
Zambia was picked as Africa’s representative at the women’s Olympic football event after defeating Cameroon 2-1 in the final of CAF’s qualifying tournament.
