The Zambia national team bench is sweating on the fitness of defender and captain Elijah Tana ahead of Sundays Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup 3rd and 4th place playoff match against Madagascar.
Tana was stretched off on Wednesday evening in Zambia’s Cosafa Cup semifinal match against South Africa that Herve Renard’s side lost 1-0.
The Nchanga Rangers defender and Zambia captain suffered a knee injury in that game and that his knock is not to be as serious as earlier feared.
Tana’s injury comes just a week following his successful return to action with Zambia in this years Cosafa Cup campaign 7 months after he was dropped from the 2008 Africa Cup finals team due to poor fitness.
Zambia team physicians are watching Tana’s current situation closely to see whether the defender will be fit for Sunday’s game against Madagascar.
Zambia and Madagascar will play for bronze at Thulamahashe in a 13:00 kickoff where they both lost their penultimate stage matches to South Africa and Mozambique respectively on Wednesday evening.
Mozambique beat Madagsacar 2-1 to book their final place.
And in other sports news, Zambia’s 8-member Beijing Olympic Games team leaves for China at 15:00 on Friday, August 1.
The team comprises of 2007 Algeria All-Africa Games light-welterweight boxing gold medalist Hastings Bwalya who is Zambia biggest Olympic hopeful this year.
The other boxers are welterweight Precious Makina and flyweight Cassius Chiyanika and together with Bwalya will form Zambia’s biggest contingent in Beijing.
The rest of the squad members are swimmers Ellen Height and Zane Jordan including track athletes Tony Wamulwa and Rachael Nachula including 2007 All-Africa games badminton silver medalist Eli Mambwe.
bring nangu yabili ama medals dont just make up numbers. Good luck
Mwaiche Eli, you ve been training in Germany for a long time. I hope you ve polished up yo skills. we need a medal from you this time.
we are tired naimwe bamambala,last time herve said tana was not fit but just on wednesday we saw him wearing captainship band and tana was a heroe on suday,this sunday again they are banking on him.Does this man’herve’ knows what is doing? why can’t he just admit that we need experienced players in the team.I now doubt this man.
#3 Even me my brother i doubt this Frenchman but lets wait and see since now Mbesuma has been drafted in Chipoplo squad. Good luck boys and get well soon bashi Joshua (Tana) thats what i call him
All the Best to the guys going to Beijing China.
THE NATIONAL TEAM IS A DISGRACE!PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!HOW CAN U LOOSE TO BOOZERS…CHAPS THAT PLAY IN THE MVELA LEAGUE…NEVER BEEN HEARD OF.NOW WE FIGHTING FOR 3RD PLACE.AYI MWANDI ME AM TIRED!!
we are lucky that it was not a world cup or african cup game.im tired of this lucky thing,renrad should either admit that he cant coach than give school boy execuses of the poor piches in zambia as the cause,how was pp managing,they are worse piches in other african countries,some of them have even never had grass on their pitches but can still win.he needs to recall mbesuma,or else i assure u that we will have another draw,,therefore being eliminated from the race
so disapointed in you CHIPO BOYZ and HARVE.but hey!never give up.come on Boys,revive the spirit we had in the time of “poterfield”we can do it again guys.Ronard,pull your socks quik before they throw stones on you.
that is Zambia my friend.
#4,ati Mbesuma has been re-called?
#9 yes he has been drafted in Chipolopolo squad (in short, he has been recalled) Lets keep on praying for the boys come 6th September Togo must fall
Scoring problems since the depature of Phiri. He should have been one of the assistant coaches. There has been a lot of try and error. Mbesuma may also not be the saviour. Sort out this mess before Togo match. We are tired of excuses.
You send a contingent of 8 members and Expect medals…
sometimes i wish we dont even waste time goin to these
competitions while other countries are sending 300-400 sports
members…we get so disappointed if we dont even win one kama
medal… far out…!!!
i agree with black feet, how on earth can we expect medals with a team of 8 pipo.Even if all of them won gold medals we would still have less medals compared to countries like china with almost 300 athletes. I dont understand our sports admin in Zambia.
is this some kind of a joke? 8 people to the olympics? And we expect our sport to improve. We need to give our sportsguys something to look forwrd to. They need to look forward to going somewhere. Now if we can only take 8 pipo what hope is there for the rest
8 pips yaaaba, pa zed everything is a joke. any way good luck baice
so these chaps will have very little time to acclamatize.
Please watch the nuimer of officials that go for these games,we should not have more officials than the number of athletes.Resources must be used with sense
We need to be serious in whatever competition we take part in or else we shouldnt bother.Its our country and resources that gets let down by lack of commitment.At the end does it matter whether Herve loses or not.I am sure he cares more for France than Zambia.We need t tie up contracts with results.
How can we expect Zambia to win with such resources:-
Renard also called for the improvement of infrastructure in Zambia if any good development of football was to be recorded.
“In Zambia, all pitches are bad. We need to change that first. We can’t develop without good infrastructure,” he said.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
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we have a problem …we wont stop doing experiments on national issues…the zambian team how many changes do we need to make to have a fixed zambian national team that we stand the test of time.
We need a team that should be their for zambia…please bring back our own patrick phiri to support zambian products.
This man is not performing enough is enough otherwise it will worse then this.
Renarse must go before the Togo march & Patrick Phiri must take care of the lads if we must stand a chance of qualifying to Afcon and not the world cup
Patrick should take over as a coach, uyu umwaice harve is a corward kwaliba formular yaso? Playing with strikers ONLY and no defenders in the pitch. He is not even qualified to be an assisitant to PATRICK PHIRI. For Zambia to qualify let Patrick be in charge for the game against Togo
Let FAZ tell the naion what has gone wrong with our national team.Is it that we do not have players who can perform in ZAmbia, or we do not have coaches who are able to identify talent in players? I still repeat my question to say, where is Patrick?
When we pick some players from under 20 and mix them with the senior team, we spoil the team. There must be consistence. Let us have under 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23 and over 24 teams. the team captained by Andrew Sinkala that played (is Ghana?) and lost to Brazil 6-1 should not have been disturbed.
We should also employ coaches with good traceable references – not physical trainers as head coaches.
I don’t think you’re asking for Patrick Phiri’s return with good returns because i recall that his reign was also inconsistent. We qualified for Ghana 2008 on the last day of qualifiers! He won a couple of trophies but he is not the saviour that people want to make him look like. Don’t forget the tactical blunders when we lost 5 – 1 to Cameroun. We have closed that chapter already & need to concentrate on the job at hand.
L, why am I unable to post commenys from my PC. Have you blacklisted me. I dont insult people on this website. I am writing from another PC.
LT, why am I unable to post comments on this blog from my PC? I dont isult my fellow bloggers here. I am able to post this comment as I am posting from my PC. Why?
Just because you eat with patrick phiri @ the same table does not mean he is a good coach. He is just your bread winner and he won’t get that job just like that. He has failed us too. Let him rest in peace.
Someone has already asked this question. What was the rationale behind disbanding the team that competed in Ghana 2008? Draft in a couple of players (especially on defense) and you have a good building block. What’s become of the players from the CHAN team? They should be able to help I would suppose.
WISH THEM THE BEST.
I DON’T FAVOUR HAVING A NON ZAMBIAN COACH.
What can PP now that he did not do the past couple years he was in charge. Let Harve identify the players he wants to make a team with. Don’t expcect miracles on the 2 months he has been with the team. Cosafa is a good tournament to help him pick players. 1st it was fix the defense which he has been working on and now we have striker probe which he just inherited. I think the guy is doing his best anybody can be a good coach given Brazilian players. Give the same coach Zambian players and u want his head cut off
Renard is doing a good job. Please give more time. Even if you bring Alex Furgeson to coach Zed, he will still have the same problems.
Its better to send 8 and come home without a medal than more than that and still come out with little or nothing.More than half of them have international exposure.Goodlucky Zambia.
Those calling for PP to come back as coach, check the results for Nkana whom he is coaching, they are not winning and nowhere close to the top of the league, they are not scoring goals either. Check the whole league for the results for this weekend – very disappointing. There is certainly something seriouly wrong with our football.
The new coach is okay don’t give him too much pressure.Lets help him sharpen the front line.5 games without much expected good results,look at the statistics before you talk,how many goals have we conceeded and scored ,where is the problem ?defence,midfield or striking? Mind you, people saying he must go! you dont know the contractual terms he signed.You seem not to care about our money.He will still get his money or else FIFA will be on us.He never signed the contract to take ZAMBIA to the world cup but to manage the team until 20….something. I got trust in the the new football admin. we’ll make it.#21 think bout it ……..!
Zambia has scored against Madagascar in the 56th minute. He beat three defenders before scoring. Coach has fielded a relatively young side except for Billy Mwanza and Kakonje.
Zambia 2-0 up against Madagascar. Kombe has scored after a kola pass. This was in the 72nd minute. The defence is however ling dangarously. Chivuta is also in the team.
Hachilensa has been brought into the game as part of the strateggy to stabilise the game.
Ba Kolwe who are complaining, you are missing the point about the team, this cosafa is meant to feature development teams with very little experience. It’s used as an opportuninity to discover new talent at national level in the southern region. Herve is still new and this is good for him, so far he has identified good players with potential. Like this boy BANDA he is a marvel on the ball, he controls the midfield like it’s his, please shut the hell up and give credit to the man for trying. You people are going to swallow your own Kak. WELL DONE BOYS AND WELL DONE TO THE COACH>
um ka ester kabwela koina from her trip, have u seen her gentlemen??? kaoneka mushe ka??