Zambian football shifts its attention this coming weekend to the continental club action after a last three weeks of Africa Cup of Nations action.
Zesco United and Green Buffaloes will both be away in action in Caf Africa Champions League and Confederations Cup engagements respectively in East Africa.
Buffaloes head out to Zanzibar tomorrow Monday February 11 where they face Chipukizi this Saturday in their Confederations Cup preliminary round, first leg tie.
This will be Buffaloes 5th outing in Africa since they were promoted back to the top-flight in 1999.
Coach George Lwandamina is carrying an 18-member team for the game against Chipukizi and his Buffaloes squads will include four new faces-three of them on loan players.
The team includes Zambia national soccer team Kabwe Warriors striker Emmanuel Mayuka including his club mate and defender Danny Zulu.
Mayuka’s fellow Zambia international team mate William Njobvu of Lusaka Dynamos including midfielder John Musukwa from Chambishi are also in the team.
Buffaloes will host Chipukizi in the return leg on March 1 at Nkoloma Stadium while their home ground at Independence Stadium is undergoing major rehabilitation works.
Winner of the preliminary round two-way fixture will in the next round face either Highlanders of Zimbabwe or Ferroviario de Nampula of Mozambique late next month.
Zesco on the other hand head to Uganda on Wednesday where they face Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in a Caf Africa Champions League preliminary round first leg away match in Kampala also on the same date.
This will be Zesco’s second escapade into African club cup competition since making their continental debut in the 2006 Confederations Cup where they reached the 2nd round and were ejected by Township Rollers of Botswana at that stage.
Coach Wedson Nyirenda is hoping his first African outing at the helm will not be a brief one for a Zesco team that boosts three internationals in the starting line-up.
Zambia international Midfielder Rainford Kalaba and defender William Chinyama have just returned from the Africa Cup in Ghana.
Striker Enoch Sakala is also expected to be the 18-member team to be announced by the club on Tuesday.
Also expected to be in the team are Zesco’s two on-loan signings.
Striker Elson Mkandawire of Power Dynamos and Zambia Under-23 forward Sign Chibambo from Nakambala Leopards are also expected to be in the traveling party.
Winner of the Zesco-URA two-way preliminary round tie will face last years Caf Africa Champions League semifinalists Al Hilal of Sudan in the 2nd round.
Buffaloes Team:
Goalkeepers: Mike Poto, Dave Kayumba.
Defenders: Maybin Chishimba, Danny Zulu, Newa Mwewa, Lawrence Phiri, Dennis Banda, Selekani Mwale, Sydney Banda.
Midfielders: William Njovbu, Prince Mubita, Sebastian Mwansa, Dears Kakunta, Morgan Hanjeema, John Musukwa.
Strikers: Emmanuel Mayuka, Reuben Tembo, Brian Chilando.
5 minutes to go EGYPT 1 CAMEROON 0
AM loving it!! we are about to rule this continent
WOW WOW WOWO EGYPT IS DOING IT AGAIN
Yes, Abdulaziz, Egypt has done it again but remember your Vow.
Egypt are worthy winners. now go celebrate somewhere else, think about why you insist harassing people here.
Wishing Buffaloes and ZESCO all the best. Lets do it boys!
#three Allah has blessed your predictions you are a very luck Zambian. Enjoy it Egypt won Allah has made it possible my man. Hey ps
Congrats to Egypt.
As an African & Soccer fan i would like to take this opportunity also to Congratulate Egypt for being crowned the Kings of African Soccer.The played the best football and deserved to be champs without a doubt.Two years ago i not was impressed with their victory which i personally felt wasn’t convincing but this time the were untouchable.The have shown the rest of Africa that local technical personnel and home based players can do it .
As the experts & a lot of people have said this was indeed one of the best Nations Cup.The standard of football was very good and highly competitive, 99 goals in the whole tournament wow!
Jacob Mulenga scored his first goal for Strasbourg over the weekend as his team beat St.Etienne 3-0.Jacob played 90 minutes.I know a few people were not happy with his performance at the Nations Cup but i think the young man did well,this is his 1st season in top flight football lets give him time.The guy has started & played 90mins of the last 6 games he has played for the club.Though he was only playing,the last 6mins when he joined the club the guy has forced himself in the starting 11Eleven and he has never looked back.
It’s true he needs to work on his finishing and ball control but the guy is benching some good players at his club and his coach has seen something good in the lad.
Jacob Mulenga is a star in making, I see him and Felix Katongo Arsenel soon. Watch this space.
DID YOU KNOW THAT ZAMBIA IS THE ONLY COUNTRY THAT WAS UN BEATEN BY EGYPT IN THIS YEAR’S AFCON. DONT YOU THINK THIS WAS SOMETHING?
#12
yes it was something.
in fact if kalaba had come in earlier in the game, we would even have beaten egypt.isaac chansa didnt impress as expected.kalaba umwaiche ali kwata game.he makes an impact in the team with his good passes and thats howcome we managed to score thru chris katongo.thats how football is,thez no way you can expect strikers to be looking for balls from the center line when midfielders and wingers are there.thats why na etto cudnt produce his best,he wasnt being supplied good balls much,so naifwe,chris would have done better if the midfileders did a good job.against cameroon,we know that its the defense that messed up.abena billy,etc ninshi guys ehh?mwali no mwenso?
Truly Group C, of the just ended AFCON, was a group of death and it also justifies why Zambia needs to be proud for atleast coming out with 4 points. We actually played the finals considering that we played Egypt and Cameroon. All the Comeroon coach needed to do was to ask Coach Phiri how to draw with Egypt. Zambian National team has alot of potential to grow. Coach Phiri must be encouraged by all means possible. Thanks ba Phiri, I do not want to thank Phiri when he dies as has always been the case in Zambia.
We need a complete change at faz. We also needed to establish two teams A and B. A for foreign based players to play in world and african cup qualifiers. And then team B to play in cosafa and other regional tonarments should comprise locally based players.
well done PP for a good job on Egypt indeed. let us not only judge when it is bad but lets give a thumbs up when it is worth it. We contained Egypt, otherwise they would have had a 100% record but thanx to PP and the boys they coul d not.
Well done Phiri, for what? What we saw from Zambian players is what they have or rather posses as individual players, what was miising was the imput from the coach cause there was none at all. PP was too domant as a coach.
Well done Phiri, for what? What we saw from Zambian players is what they have or rather posses as individual players, what was missing was the input from the coach cause there was none at all. PP was too domant as a coach.
PP is cabbge at National level, that is all. Cameroon are finished team, riding on one horse Etoo… it became too much for him and Egypt were not a second worried about him. He shines at Barcelona cause he is playing alongside stars. Kalu won matches for Zed single handedly. Ata se. To be frankwe are just as good as any team that did well at AFCON. Even Ivory Coast lost 1-4 to Egypt. I feel Cameroon have more home work imagine being waked by the same team twice (2-4) & 0-1), goals 2 againist 5, good defending by Cameroon and the Ivory Coast who depend on DD
I wouldn’t congratulate P.P,cos he failed to get the team to the second round.The days of saying we played well but lost is gone.When did we last go through to the second round,1996 when we finished 3rd overall.#14,15,16 i know you entitled to your own views.This team had the ability to go far in the competition but it was failed by the Technical bench.
P.P may be a good coach but at the highest level he is been found wanting.The best we can do is to send him for further training not the short courses his been doing.We don’t need to struggle to qualify to Angola with the team we have but if things don’t change that will be the story.We are tired of 1st Round twalonga again.
# 20 sibs RSA, you need to understand that considering the circumstances, PP did very well. Lets face it , PP works on a shoe string budget and he is poorly paid compared to most coaches who were at AFCON. Secondly PP needs seasoned assistants to chip in to compliment his tactics.FAZ does not help much in terms of monitoring and securing the players so you should understand that conditions for PP are hostile also.We need to keep him as head coach then get an expat coach to assist him.Lets be proud Zedians we can do it with our own man if we support him.
Tboz Mudala #21 it’s true P.P works in a very difficult environment. No one knows whats happening to the players abroad otherwise we would not have brought Mbesuma all the way then drop him in Tunisia.Don’t you think it would be good to send P.P for a long and intensive training in Europe then he will come and take over the job when he’s more equipped.Man like you i would like to have our own man in charge but he has to be good enough to deliver.
Nothing would give me more joy than seeing a Zambian coach qualify us for the W.Cup or win the Africa Cup.But do we have a local coach good enough to do this? Thats what we need to ask ourselves.
as said earlier,we would even have beaten egypt mdala if kalaba had come on earlier.cameroon were beaten twice,ivory coast with all their european stars were humbled.but ifwe we managed.mdala,fact is fact,its not easy to compete with teams like ivory coast ,cameroon etc which have 90% of the starting 11 being european based players.so,the boys need more exposure.tthe egyptian local league is very strong and hence despite most of their players nnot being in europe,they are still a very strong team.its high time their players got world recognition too.guys like zaky and zedan or aboutrika,ninshimbi shilya.
EKlCFi comment4 ,
Perfect work!
Beautiful site!