Friday, March 29, 2024

Grandstand: Herve a Brave Face

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Herve Renard’s bravery should be saluted after he declared the last eight was his objective at next year’s Africa Cup in Angola.

They are those that have already insulted him and questioned his abilities for not thinking beyond the second round target he has set.

But poor Renard has a huge job ahead and he is almost powerless to turn Zambia into a juggernaut from the paper tigers who have only managed to score an embarrassing two goals in the final group phase qualifying round.

What Renard will be counting on really is a lot luck starting with the luck of the draw this Friday when the preliminary stage groupings for the Angola tournament will be made.

Meanwhile, did I hear the cliché “prepare adequately for the tournament”?

Honestly, Renard doesn’t also need friendly matches to fine-tune his team for the tournament.

Call it irony but Renard has just had about his best preparations after Zambia was taken to school in Group C against the quality of FIFA World Cup belligerents Egypt and Algeria against whom his side has played a combined four times since March.

Meanwhile, Zambia are heading for the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup next month and it is an irrelevant outing as far as the Africa Cup is concerned with none of the core of Renard’s foreign based players available for the event.

The fact is Zambia is going into the Africa Cup low on quality and we must accept and live with the sad truth that the coming of the next football messiah is still unknown.

And it is not about money as someone put it in a minor playing nation just south of where we are whose country enjoys very little football tradition apart from moaning that despite their riches, they cannot surpass poor and crisis-riddled Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It is all about having a strong culture in the game but right now we are going through a football El Nino.

And with that I will drift to a very controversial subject where denial is rife.

Maybe it is time the game aggressively embraced minorities as schools football too is riddled to the core with cheats as most schools field mercenaries to bring them glory at national school championships.

Furthermore, we have not had an Asian player coming through since Mohamed Seedat of City of Lusaka in the 90’s.

The game has stuck to one talent pool that is seemingly currently in recession and we have failed to harness the potential of both the colored and Asian community.

There must be at least two gems going to waste somewhere in the Asian, white and colored communities am sure.

It is true that football is a unifying factor but like boxing these two sports have has failed to embrace minorities unlike other “minor and elite” sports.

The philosophy of integration in these “minor and elite” sports is encouraged in the interest of survival and is two-way with the tapping into each other’s talent pools.

It is something football can learn from to avoid a repeat of the current talent conundrum on a rainy day.

19 COMMENTS

  1. If there iz any yellow, cream or even multi colored Zambian out there, with futbo talent, pliz come fourth and save our soulz.

  2. Why aiming for last eight why not the top slot.This guy should be sacked i dont like it that some people will target second positions in lifes achievement and not aim to be the best.I think for the sake of our country lets show this guy the door.

  3. This is a realistic goal to attain. We always go to these tournaments saying we are goin to win but the reality is not so. Take for example a team like Man City – their goal this season is to finish in the top 5. So where do we always come off trying to aim high. So save yourself an ulcer and in Herve we trust.

  4. The altitudde with Zambian footballers is bad Renard is not the one who plays he caoches them but they dont give him support, and the reason is that they dont like him. i dont think there will be any coach that zambians will like. its either we change the atitude or continue loosing. even if you had to bring Sir ferguson still zambia will be loosing.

  5. I one time told my friends that Zambia national team required two angels from God’s department of football to come and coach; human beings alone will never make Zambia improve her football. Even angels may find it tough to change the attitude of our players…they are all bent on fund-raising and putting their country second…eventually God last!!!
    We require and seriously need divine intervention to succeed in football. We have called our country a Christian nation, and yet I have never heard of our team attending prayers whilst in camp. We need to recognise the fact the team has to go down on its knees and pray whenever they are in camp – and I mean serious prayers, not matokozo yama prayers. God will continue punishing us until we show that we are a Christian nation.

  6. Is the best we can do. Football has really gone to the dogs. I surely miss the days when the game was well organized that even a grade 7 pupil by the name of Brighton Sinyangwe could make it the Nation Team and could score goals against the mighty Congo Leopards. And talk of peace in the country, just accross the boarder war ravaged TP Mazembe managed to wit the CAF Champions league- you only leave in a relative peace with no targets set or achieved.

  7. Interesting article LT.I remember Mohamed “Charlie Boy” Seedat.The man was a brilliant Midfielder.You could hear a pin drop in Chilenje when City Yamoto was playing at Woodlands Stadium.The streets were deserted as most of the people were at the Stadium.
    The combination of Mohamed Seedat,Aaron Lubunda,Rotson Kilambe,Kedric Siame,Joel Kabemba and Moses Phiri propelled City Yamoto to great heights.
    They even reached the Mosi Cup final after dispatching the dreaded Nkana (1-0)with the likes of Mordon Malitoli,”shom shom”Mwila,Bobton Chela,Mulenga e.t.c.It was Seedat who delivered the pin point accurate cross for Kabemba to head in against Nkana in that semi final.
    In the Final,City lost 1-0 to Kellies”paymaster” Mwaba’s goal for Power Dynamos.Those were the good old days.

  8. #6 The Almighty Jehova God doez not come into our football wooz. Even if we were to camp at the Cathedral of the Holly Cross and employ the senior most clergyman/woman az Team Manager, our problemz would not end. The who issue just needz the FAZ to put it’s Football House in order.

  9. On the 15th November, 2009, I met the Brave Rangerz celebrating party after they beat Kitwe United 1-2 to win Divizion1 North League and bounce back to the Premier. Waz nice to see Jim Salimu, Patrick Nkhata, Mr Milner and a lot other veteranz still working withe Chingola team.

  10. Harve has fallen way below expectations, the problem with Zambia and FAZ is that they give so much support to white coaches eg going to camp in South Africa, France then playing a friendly in England. The fact of the matter is that if Harve was Zambian we would have fired him along time ago. The team has only scored 2 goal’s in the group stages.
    Under Patrick Phiri they had the ability to score 3 goals against South Africa and that was only in one game.
    If we give our local coaches the same support as we give to the white foreign coaches you would see better results.

  11. you useless figures of zambia why can’t you for once appreciate what renard has done to the country. when has zambia ever made it to africa cup since 1996. some times as pipo we need to think and appreciate the little we have achieved. i know we had a chance to qualify to world cup but that wasn’t our time to go there. even though zambia had qualified to world what hope do you have that they can win the world cup. no matter how you trust ur players zambia can win the world cup.
    however, thank renard that he has broken the record of zambia of qualifying to africa cup since 1996. chickens.

  12. Are you guys serious here, or do you guys just claim to know football? I have looked at number games that Harve has managed and I looked at his style of play. There is nothing wrong with the type of football his implementing. The problem is you need a plan. let me give you an Example and they are many . the french sided of 1998, 7 players , were winners in the under 20 Eufa cup. Ghana over 15 players in the national team have represented there country at junior world cups. When, I mean a plan, we need to a start soccer development system so young players can be built to represent Zambia. People want blame Harve , did you expect him to make Gold with SHHIITT?

  13. ZAMBIA’S AFCON GROUP-PREDICTIONS.
    First Predictions
    1. Côte d’Ivoire
    2. Algeria
    3. Zambia
    4. Gabon
    Second Predictions
    1. Angola
    2. Tunisia
    3. Zambia
    4. Mozambique
    The first one would be tough and challeging. The second one appealing but trick. No matter what happens lets bless our selves to meeting the arabs in the group stages. I for one would not mind meeting algeria again on neutral ground. Now my advice is, FAZ should come up with a workable plan for the tornament BY calling enough players in the striking department so that we can get the best from both our national league and pros. HR come up with tree different systems that we can apply depending on the team and time during the matches. A team will only win if they are unpredictable. No fear, Angola is our home, Go…

  14. The minorities mentioned are just a tiny fraction of the population of z. i am afraid no real solution will emerge from there. were is kalusha’s (FAZ) development plan? train more coaches in schools and fund school tournaments. Market the game, re-energize the game at grassroots. Numbers at stadia have dropped due to English league and falling Zambian standards. Football’s state is just a reflection of the state pf the nation

  15. I agree with Anan. Maybe Zambians should also step up and start supporting local football. This article though loses me, in that it makes it look like whites, asians, and mixed ppl have been excluded from football. I doubt that is the case, any coach worth a lick of salt would chose talent over race, especially in Zambia where we don’t have those issues.

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