Zambia has relinquished its hold on the Cosafa Youth Championship crown after three successive wins.
Young Chipolopolo headed to Lesotho in search of a fourth successive title following wins in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Alas, Oswald Mutapa’s sides lost 1-0 to Amajita South Africa U20 in both sides penultimate Group C match at the ongoing tournament in Lesotho.
Nhlankanipho Ntuli scored the games only goal in Maseru to end Zambia’s interest in the tournament.
South Africa have maximum six points from the opening two games and need a draw against Namibia on Tuesday to see them finish top of Group C and advance to the semifinals.
Zambia, who were reduced to ten men after Ronald Chibwe was sent off in the 80th minute, have a point from two games ahead of their formality Group c game against The Seychelles on Tuesday in Mafeteng.
South Africa beat the Seychelles 4-0 in their opening match on December 4 at Mafeteng while Zambia drew 1-1 with Namibia on the same date in the late kickoff at the same venue.
How has Zambia relinquished the title when the race to the next round is still on? Young Chipolopolo have a point tho u haven’t told us bout the result btn the other two countries. Its not yet over tho the permutations are still at play. Lsk times inform correctly.
poor reporting.. they need to win their last game
Namibia beat the Seyshels 2-1.
Lt u don’t need to be excused for yo poor reporting.
South Africa will beat Namibia and we are beating Seychelles by 4-0.Then we shall still be in contention.Unless it is only one team to go to the second round.
@ Getalife and Osmore,
Too bad colleagues;only one team proceeds per group to the semi-finals. Ba LT is right, for once.
You can dream.
So you just watch football without knowing the rules. If you think LT is wrong why cant u research using Google? we are not in 30’s please. The rule is that only one team from each group will proceed to next round. Zambia in OUT.
We needed to send a zambia national u20 team,not a lusaka select u20 team,selection of players from one province,we can’t win
Bitter Bemba obviously. Why do you people always complain when other tribes dominate a sports team?
I said it earlier.team selection of these teams is very biased.Unless those given the responsibility to select these teams are prudent,these problems will continue
This article is so poorly written, Anyhow hard-luck guys.
Too bad. Next time guys.
Its not strange to give away a trophy, the senior Team did it, so what is strange for U20 NOT TO FOLLOW THE LEGACY BY THE SENIOR TEAM? CONGRATS FOR MAKING AMAJITA WIN THOUGH WE ARE MOURNING MANDELA AND CHINKUSU. The next thing FAZ will petition that the match was played when mandela died , so we need a reply
“Zambia has relinquished its hold on the Cosafa Youth Championship crown after three successive wins”.
This statement does not make an iota of sense
Soccer fans know the rules of the tournament before you comment.It was clear from the beginning that the winner from each group will proceed to the semi-finals and so far South Africa have 6 points from 2 games,Namibia 4 ,Zambia 1 and Seychelles 0 points respectively.Even if Zambia wins the last game they will end with 4 points.
The performance of the team really shows how overall the football standards in Zambia are falling as compared to the other COSAFA region notably Mozambique,Lesotho and Botswana.
South Africa and Zimbabwe have so far go the best youth development structures and no wonder our youth teams have been falling prey to these 2 countries.
Cont…
The current team was selected from the top teams.This is after playing the whole season and were exhausted.How long did the team stay in camp for example?We as Zambians easily become big headed.All other teams knew that Zambia had won the tournament for the past 3 years and therefore needed to prepare adequatetely.2 weeks is not enough.We for example know that every December the tournament will be played.Selection and preperation must commence early.Why not hold monthly camps till November when the team has to be in camp for the whole month?
Cont…
The current team my own analysis is not a continuation of the previous under 17 team.How do we expect to have a formidable under 20 if there is no continuity?Learn from Ghana,Nigeria and Ivory Coast.Ghana and Nigeria specifically have won FIFA world cup championships at youth levels because of the seriousness they put in youth development.What do we in Zambia?FAZ needs to do a serious introspection on the youth development in Zambia.We will never be world champions youth development.The youths are the future in any discipline.FAZ needs to come with new initiatives and strategies to take this country forward in youth football development.
FAZ the ball is in your court.
Corrections
The current under 20 team in my own analysis is not a continuation of the previous under 17 team.How do we expect to have a formidable under 20 if there is no continuity?Let us learn from Ghana,Nigeria and Ivory Coast.Ghana and Nigeria specifically have won FIFA world cup championships at youth level because of the seriousness they put in youth development.What do we have in Zambia?FAZ needs to do a serious introspection on the youth development in Zambia.We will never be world champions if we neglect youth development.The youths are the future in any discipline.FAZ needs to come with new initiatives and strategies to take this country forward in youth football development.
FAZ !the ball is in your court.
And for SouthAfrica its the same team that played the under 17 Cosafa games that was held in Zambia. The likes of Nthuli were part of the team and have continued to develop…….Zambia meanwhile has a totally new team…..Buluya bwesu bane, we chose this path we are on, especially ba FAZ …….