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Fantastic Zambia End Togo’s World Cup Dreams

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Zambia are one foot into the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola
after a deserved 1-0 home win over Togo at Konkola Stadium in
Chililabombwe today.

Fantastic was how Zambia Coach Herve Renard described his  second
successive slender 1-0  win in the
qualifiers at the same venue after beating Swaziland by the same
margin last June in another Group 11 qualifying game.

” It was fantastic to win like this today,” Renard said. “One thing
about this team is that we can play
without a key player and am very impressed.

“It shows we have team spirit and the spirit is fantastic and we have
to  build on that.”

Meanwhile, Togo were second best throughout and only have  themselves
to blame for the loss that sees them out of the race for the 2010
World and Africa Cup finals and refused to attended the post-match
press briefing.

An Emmanuel Adebayor-less Togo looked jaded after arriving 24 hours
before the match with little time to rest after landing late Tuesday
afternoon.

Zambia were in control with Green Eagles midfielder and newboy Kebby
Hachipuka showing some great promise in that defensive midfield role.

The match also marked Mamelodi Sundowns striker Collins Mbesuma first
competive game under Renard.

For those expecting some magic from Mbesuma, there was little apart
from the tee-off that led to Zambia’s opening goal in the 29th minute.

Mbesuma’s conjured a simple layoff for French Ligue 1 Stade Rennes
midfielder Felix Katongo whose breathtaking thunderbolt hit the
horizontal before eluding Cedric Mensah to cross the line.

“He (Mbesuma) needs time,” Renard said. “The important thing is he
tried but we should be patient because he needs time.”

Mbesuma’s loss of his old sniper instict was evident for all to see in
the 62nde minute after he failed to connect with a James Chamanga
layoff with arches of space to shot on the edge of the area.

Zambia could have wrapped it up with at least three more goals
especially in the second half starting with Rainford Kalaba on 51
minutes whose near post shot was bravely saved  by Mensah before the
Togo goalkeeper was substituted after he was injured in the process.

Katongo fluffed a chance in the 71st  minute from outside the 6 yard
box and James Chamnanga too failed from similar range six minutes from
time.

Roger Kola too saw his longrange shot saved in the 86th minute by
Mensah’s replacement Abdoul Omoru.

Zambia fate to the final group stage of the 2010 World cup now lies in
the hads of Togo who must beat Group 11 leaders Swaziland next month
to see Renard continue the onerous journey to South Africa.

Renards side now leads Group 11 on 7 points from 4 games until next
when Swaziland and Togo clash in Lome.

editor
editorhttp://www.lusakatimes.com

125 COMMENTS

  4. Well done the mighty chipolopolo! We always rally behind u & we have confidence that this time around u will go much further.Keep up the morale 4 the pride of our great motherland Zambia………..

  5. Good Results. Let’s soldier on. Coach sharpen the finishing. Good thinking by F. Katongo. Kola is a promising star. Thank you boys.

  7. Good news indeed….will be watching Finaland vs Germany at the helsinki stadium now with alot of joy.Big Up Zambia.LPM must be a happy man.

  8. Truely we are Chipolopolo.Well done boys keep it up.
    Its just unfortunate that our qualification is not
    straight forward,it mathematical. In moments like this
    thats when look back on previous game and wish you had
    a different result.A draw with swaziland and the losss
    to Togo….. ? Anyway lets pray that togo will beat
    Swaziland.

  11. Mwabombeni baice! well played but improve on converting chances into goals. Mbesuma trim some more weight and improve your speed. kalaba keep the spirit niwe man of the match. Hachipuka soon you will be the professional in england dont start ama chibuku naiwe. Felix mwaice ikali ilya, you go higher and higher. Renard that team was good but Mayuka was to be in the place of Jacob Mulenga. Otherwise we go further thanks boys. Ba acting president was dosing, so he de-campaigned himself. he should that soccer is our life.

  21. chipolopolo!!! and at least mbesumo sweated of some shakers well done the katongos. rainford kalaba i like the hunger you have portugal must have done you good unlike someone we know

  22. Don’t worry Zambia, we are already through to the next round. Even if Swazi beat Togo 2-nil in west Africa(which is highly unlikely) we will still squeez through as one of the best runners-up with the goal difference of only -2.

  24. Let us give support to this, coach he is serious. Ifyakulandalanda muleke. Give him chance, the team is promising.

  26. Keep it up guys…We need to always give them support, whether WIN or LOSE! Its not good to insult them when they LOSE and give them all sorts of praises when they WIN. Lets act together, togetherness is oneness…!!!

  27. It was good to have HH in the open wing at Konkola stadium today the guy is smart he walked in just when RB was greeting the teams and took the publicity at the open wing. Well done thats politics, identify with the people, Viva HH

  29. Adebayor will play against Swaziland. He didn’t fly to Zambia cause he believed the plane was going to crash if theie Football Association President was not the flight.
    The president couldn’t fly because he was attending to his mother’s funeral arrangements.

  30. Well done lads!!! Keep up the hardwork but remember it’s not over and done yet.The coach should now lessen his experiments with new players,I believe he now has the nucleus of the a team on which he can build on.

  31. Good game boys and good gesture Mr President. U gave the boys morale to play. We know you are a true soccer fan, as former FAZ President. Those who don’t know think you were playing politics. Cheers boys, at least we can smile.

  33. Atleast you have done it for the late “John Chibumba”, keep the spirit boys. But ROBOT (RB)never doze off in the stadium, we heard that it was Katongo`s goal that woke you up, we have known you to be a keen soccer fun, but why dozing today………..Are you thinking of King Kobra? usike wa saba ndate.

  34. “Fantastic was how Zambia Coach Herve Renard described his second
    successive slender 1-0 win”
    Yes it was fantastic to win, but Coach you are not doing your job. We have all the talent, trying to play as a team, but onething lacked. The boys played with no sense of urgency. The Killer instinct we lack is due to the coach. He has failed to instil, inspire that into the players.Its the job of the coach.
    Wel done boys, though it could have been better.

  45. CLIFFORD MULENGA, YOU CAN JERK OFF COZ THE TEAM PERFORMED SUPERBLY WITHOUT YA! SO QUIT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE YOU UNPATRIOTIC SOB!

  47. We need to work hard upfront , neverthelessit was a fantastic game looking at the standard of the game , 64% AGAINST 36% ball pocession , surely we needed more goals than just one. Also impressed on the long range shooting and we benefitted from that , what is important is that players should continue to be shooting from a distannce ,it doesnt matter if the are shooting over the bar ,atlest 2 or 3 will be able to go through and one goes in and you win the game. Chris and Felix have improved on the shooting abilities because they always try out . Its just like Figo at initial years at Barcelona, Finidi at Ajax, Babangita and aspellila.They were not very good winger til their finest moments.

  48. Well done boys. Football is our LIFE. Keep working on increasing the players confidence level and shooting! Thanks, now I can sleep and confront the snow season. The team looks good, can we start the second round with a bang!!!. One more step, we will in SA.

  50. Just to be sure I checked the maths on the potential 2nd placed teams. So even if Swaziland beat Togo and finish ahead of Zambia, only Sierra Leone, Gambia, Morocco, Tunisia and Congo could finish ahead of Zambia for 2nd place points (taking away points from the matches against the bottom placed teams in their groups).

    Therefore since Togo have a slim chance to qualify still, they will try their best and will beat Swaziland.

  54. Good job boys and the tech bench. But work hard and prepare adequately as the next round will be a tough one. Good luck and do not relax. FAZ continue with your friendly games of international repute.Go Zambia!

  56. Great job boys and well done. Keep up the positive mentality you brought to the game. Thank you the Chipolopolo boys for making the people of Zambia so happy with the win you produced. Coz man, Zambia needed it. Good luck with your remaining games.

  62. i’ve never seen anything so uniting as soccer.we are speaking the same languge… in any case well done Zambia. here we go 2010.

  65. I watched the match from the Diaspora. Thanks to bloggers who brought it to my attention that the game was on Super Spot 3. Lets maintain this good spirit even if we do not know each other. What binds us together is patriotism and “One Zambia, one Nation.”

    Well done Chipolopolo. I could see fans holding the portrait of our Late LPM.

  67. Bane, haven’t we qualified to the next round regardless of the Togo Swaziland result? I thought that even if Swaziland were to beat Togo by 10 goals to Nill, we will have same points with the Swazis but what is usually followed in such a case is a head to head count between the teams that tie on points. We have a better head to head count because we drew with Swazi at their turf and we beat them here.

  72. 1-0 at home! Not an impressive result especially against Togo uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Na Na Na! I reserve my congrats!

  77. WEll done boys something to smile about at last after the saddest three months of Zambia.Thats goal guys, reminded me of Johnstone Bwalaya’s thunder strikes, any1 with here?

  78. Well done boys! 1 = 3! Now that the coach knows the lads he is beginning to make a formidable team. I liked the tactical approach taken in the game. Thanks Herve “Jose Mourinho” Renard.

    Vote for me!

  79. Congrats Chipolopolo. The guys played well.But Chipolopolo boys should improve on Friendship. its like many players wanted to score for themselves. Players Like Kalaba he played well but he was selfish. Most of the balls he wasted was suposed to pass to Mbesuma. I don’t Know why they did not want to pass good passes to Mbesuma But he was giving them good Passes. If Mbesuma was selfish,he wouldn’t have passed the ball back to Felix and would have just wasted it by shooting.
    Our Coach should pull his socks other wise he will have to just pack and go. He was there watching instead of coaching. please if there is someone who can talk to him, tell him that team work makes a team win.Mbesuma is ok

  85. Well done the national team, you have really dedicated this match to our late Zambian President. Keep on doing to the good job and bring victory to the crying peace nation Zambia, I wish you ALL THE BEST AS YOU TRAIN AND PREPARE FOR THE JOINT COMING WORLD/AFRICA CUP 2010.

  88. Swaziland will not beat Togo wherever in West Africa the game will be played. Togo also has a slight chance to go through to the final group stages a sone of the best runners up. Dont worry about the commentators from SS as this was expected. They are not happy to see Zambia through while South Africa is not.

    Good game yesterday and indeed a win is a win. But one question I am asking myself is: If we had met a much stronger opposition, what would have happened? We need to make use of scoring opportunities. I am sure the coach knows better. All I can say is lets wait for tougher games in the next round, then I will be able to judge team and the coach better.
    Viva chipolopolo

  89. We have already qualified. What they consider is not the aggregate goes we scored but the head to head position. In this case we drew 0:0 in Swaziland but we won 1:0 in Zambia. So on this principle applied by FIFA we go though no matter what happens between Togo and Swaziland. You remember when we topped the group in the last qualifiers simply beacuase we had a better head to head againest Southafrica whom we whaloped 3:1 despite being equal on points.

  90. sometimes a bad beggining makes a good ending. Our starting was not impressive but as we progress, we are improving with each game. When you make a mistake you don’t go to sleep, you try to work out and find the solution. This time around our problem is goal getting. So coach do just what I have said.

  94. cant lie was one of the best games iv seen Zed play in ages. we looked great, the movement off the ball, the cross field balls from deep. i was however doubting the decision of fielding chivuta as left back.. whats up with that? great dispplay from kalaba, chivuta, hachipuka n felix, tho we could have seen more from chris. once again jacob didnt put in anything special for Zed, makes us question what he does in france?? great goal saving tackle from hachipuka in the first half. all in all we llok good. lets be patient with this renard hommie and hope he can continue the good work. tho we definately need to work on our finishing and not going for glory when a player is better placed to score

  95. Good to get the result, but in the next round of 2010 qualifiers use the home advantage to get more goals because, as Alex Furgason would put, ‘goal advantage is worth as much as a point in today’s football’.

  96. Well well!! A win but worth mentioning that strike force needs serious work. Those numerous missed sitters by Mbesuma,Chris,Kalaba and Chamanga could have gone a long way in securing a comfortable victory. Three points all the same. Next round will be even tougher, I bet you.

  97. Well done boys! I know you can do better than 1-0 but it is better than to have lost the game at home. That would have been our second national mourning..

  98. At first I thought by beating Togo, Zambia would automatically qualify to the next round, but when I was watching England vs Croatia the commentator said that the rules in the current FIFA World Cup Qualifiers have changed in relation to the previous ones. Whilst last time a team would qualify based on head to head comparisons, this time it is goal difference that counts, can you imagine what would happen if Swaziland beats Togo by 3-0! Congratulations any way.

  99. well done zambia, good game played..hachipuka and kalaba were “men of the match”.much more improved midfield. improve on placing the ball into the net like thiery henry and messi. great game.

  101. Ba Chanda #89 and Manu4life #98. Its goal difference thats counting now. However in the Africa region there is another rule. Points won against the bottom team in the group wont count. This is to make it fair for Zambia’s Group 11, which has three teams, to contest for the 4 best runners-up positions. So in this case TOGO ARE NOT OUT OF CONTENTION YET although they have slim chances. They just have to win their last game by a big scoreline and then keep their fingers crossed for favourable results in other groups.

  103. Togo still have an outside chance of making it to the next round as best losers so there aim will be to win by a good margin. But i still think Swaziland have rod there luck for long enough because when they go to Togo they wont be defending like they did when they came here so it will be an open game coulpled with it being played in west africa they must be at more than there best if they have to beat Togo.

  105. Fairly a good game but guys lets face it our frontline is blunt ,when you have morethan 60% ball posesion punish your opponents ..Imagine you are playing Cameroon and you miss that many chances kuti mwapusuka!!!
    But all in all well done boyz…By the way ba mbesuma ukwina Kwati ni Rupiah banda.

  106. Since when has swaziland been an issue in soccer? It was just a lucky victory they got against togo. They are going to be thumped in accra! Well done chipolopolo, same play but with better accuracy and we can make it 2 SA.

  107. ba zambia chipolopolo iyeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so goes the song,well done gentlemen you did as proud.Am also appealing to adebayour to play aganist small swaziland.For you katongos you are blessed.for Tana you also did us proud in the defence as you stood strong and firm

  108. Just a minute Fellow Soccer fans! Sorry to pour cold water on these celebrations. Its good to be optimistic but even better to be realistic. Reading the Zambian newspapers reports you can see they are misinforming the public. We haven’t yet qualified. Its more correct to say we have almost qualified. Its only when Swaziland lose to Togo that we shall be assured of a berth. If Swaziland win we shall start contesting for the four runners-up berths. These berths will depend on results from the other groups. That is the realistic situation!

  109. Chipolopolo iyeee! Ba Zambia. Congrats to the Lads. You did us proud. However we desperately need to start putting away the numerous chances we are creating coz in the next round our opponents won’t this forgiving. Imagine if we put in the same group with th efficient Egyptians. We won’t have so many chances like we had yesterday. Renard should polish up the frontline. He shoul also give chance to Fwayo Tembo. The boy has everything a striker needs, physique, skill and pace. He reminds me of the young Ronaldo (Brazil).Chipoloplol iyeee!

  111. congrats boys but we should stop relying on “if” or mathematics like it is now. if we had scored at least 3 goals which we could have yesterday

  113. Bazambia mulalaba! Just 1-0 u think Renard is a good Coach, Have you forgotten that he even failed to lift the COSAFA cup. Look at the way he kept jacob and James in the game despite thier failure. The defence was not good, its just that it did not recieve enough pressure from the blunt Togo. Abash Renard!! Maybe Denis Liwewe can couach Ba Zambia. Can you imagin this team facing Nigeria, Egypt or Cameroon in the next round!

  116. 113 be sincere the team demonstrated good coordination and team spirit though there’s still room for improvement burly. Copper bullets welldone boys. FAZ you should make public pronouncements on incentives to player. Soccer is not a cheap game. Your mktg team should lobby support from the corporate world for such. Renard you should keep that team though boys like Clifford should be talked to nicely lest he finishes himself like what happened to others

  117. I will advice young player Clifford Mulenga to focus on his career than start having differences with coaches. He is still a young player and our country Zambia needs his service. Renard is from France and he is here in Zambia for job. As a Zambia young Clifford even on bench as young player you can gain some thing which will make your career much bright. Young prayer if you quit to play for country these shows that you have no love for your mother Zambia.

  118. “We are going to beat Togo 2-0 and qualify. The game is going to be played in Ghana and that is a neutral venue. In addition to that Togo has nothing to play for except pride but we are still v ery much in contention. I would like Chipolopolo to get themselves emotionaly ready for disappointment as we can’t let neither Togo nor them (Zambia) to qualify at our expense. Swaziland might be small in terms of population but we have what it takes to qualify” Dennis Masina (SWazi national team player) -Supersport United, Tshwane,Msanzi

  122. Okay bane I have just done a thorough mathematical analysis and realise that actually Zambia has qualified whatever happens in the other groups. Remember that games played against the bottom teams wont count for the 8 runners up slots on offer. Only two other groups can have runners up who can overtake Zambia on points. The other groups’ runners up cannot, so even if Swaziland beat Togo Zambia has qualified. However Togo have a chance of competing for the runners-up slot if they beat Swaziland because most of the competing runners up will only manage six points. But I will be supporting Swaziland because we need more representation from Southern Africa

  124. I agree with #122. We need more representation from Southern Africa. So Swaziland go out there and beat these talkative Togolese chaps! Viva to the Chipolopolo boys!!!

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