Zambia failed to beat latecomers Guinea Bissau today after they were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola in the two sides opening 2017 Africa Cup qualifier.
The hosts huffed and puffed throughout against Guinea Bissau who had barely acclimatized for them match after arriving late on Friday afternoon.
There even more shock and awe prior to kickoff when the lineups were availed only to find that Emmanuel Mayuka and Mukuka Mulenga was axed from the final 18 in what was an unconvincing start by new coach George ‘Chicken’ Lwandamina.
Captain Rainford Kalaba literally carried Zambia’s burden throughout the match and had the team’s best chances on goal.
His first was saved in the 21st minute by Jonas Mendes and later had the crowd on their feet in the 69th minute when the Zambia captain fired his header from a Nathan Sinkala cross wide.
Hope for Zambia came in the 90th minute when Ibrahima So handled the ball in the area.
However, nothing would go according to plan after Kennedy Mweene stepped up to bravely take the penalty that was collected by Mendes to summarize a very forgettable day at the office for Zambia.
Meanwhile, this was the second successive opening day match in an Africa Cup qualifier that Zambia had failed to win in less than ten months.
Zambia also fired blanks in the 2015 Africa Cup qualifiers last September 6 when they were held by Mozambique at the same venue.
Zambia and Guinea Bissau now await Sundays result between hosts Congo-Brazzaville and Kenya in Brazzaville to know their status after match day one in Group E.
You must expect such results. Zambian coaches have never proven themselves. The days of victory-hungry coaches like Zoom Ndhlovu Godfrey Chitalu Ben Mbafuchile are long gone
Mweene is enough torcher to Zambians. All these because of Mumbi Phiri, that is why Janza, Mweene decided to punish Zambian souls.
Not just Zambian coaches but players as well go on the pitch without knowledge or strategy on why they are in the game other than kick ball! Hurts when sport in Zambia has become synonymous with soccer! This is the beginning of things to come in campaign for honors, call me pessimist the journey to be booted out starts here I expect no more.
lets pour our resources into so called minor sports like basketball, tennis, squash, swimming, boxing etc
Even chidunu, imboko is better and more entertaining to watch than Zed football
Football has lamentably failed us despite pouring in 99.99% of the entire Ministry of sports budget
I have said and saying it again!Current Zambian coaches are tactically clueless.They need more exposure to modern football concepts.
Everyone is improving and slowly catching up with Zambia.
IF WE CONTINUE DOING WHAT WE ARE DOING WE WILL CONTINUE GETTING THE SAME RESULTS.
SOS!FAZ RECRUIT AN EXPERT COACH ASAP! WE HAVE TIME TILL SEPTEMBER WHEN WE FACE KENYA AWAY
THE LONG TERM SOLUTION IS A TOTAL TRANSFORMATION OF ZAMBIAN SOCCER TO CATCH UP WITH THE FOOTBALL CONCEPTS.
Kikiki ati Cock fail to lay his 2 round eggs.
No ways…how do u hijack the job just because Kalu is your friend u know each other from Mufulira and expect to win in 5 days. This shows lack of planning by FAZ and Sports Minister under pf thugs. Janza would have won that game. Anyway sembe sisebenza. Good luck in the next match in September, 2015.
Zambia may not accept it…the truth is they have no clinical
finishers. The bench and FAZ must invest in developing talent in that very clear gap.
The lack of scoring problem is now manifesting it’s head big time on the zambian soccer scene. The moment the reserve and the under teams went away,there was no denying that sooner or later,this would show on the field of play later. With the reserves and under teams,it meant that there was plenty of competitive playing time for everybody who made the team throughout the league.With more playing time,a lot of people. It meant guys made the A team because not only did they get exposure but improved their game.Folks we are in trouble and the unfortunate thing is that it’s long term.
The game plan from the technical bench was wrong. Each time the defenders had balls, they opted for long passes by-passing the midfield. We’ve not known Zambia to play long balls, moreover most of them were easily dealt with. The defence was ok & never tested for almost the entire game. The bigest let down was the approach. You create goal scoring chances from midfield & not defence. The sub of Lubambo and Chisamba brought some stability as they were able to offer the much needed thrust from the midle and right wing. Too bad mwene missed the penalty, let me not say much of this miss coze he’s never disapointed in the past when caled upon & he’s going thru a rough patch. Free lessons for George Chicken Lwandamina. Next time tell the boys to put the ball on the ground & no long bals.
Free lessons for Lwandamina continue. If yo game plan is to play long balls from defence then identify players of the likes of Malitoli & Kelvin Mutale with not just big body statues but also good ball control to hold those long balls. Unfortunately we do not have those type of players with the current crop. So make yo game plan based on the calibre of playes at yo disposal. Playing long balls needs very technicaly gifted players, the way North Africans do it ,not mentioning that its outdated football. Am just short of saying that long balls ni bola yamakula.
Chachine you talk a good game.
Lack of creativity in the middle of the park has been and remains the challenge for our national team.In Mtonga and Nathan Sinkala you have two defensive minded players and this did not help one bit going forward especially in the firts half. Other than piece their passes together and attack collectively the lads resorted to long passes which were easily dealt with. A few chances that Kalaba had in the first period came following long diagonal passes from Kabaso.
Conspicously lacking is a creative midfielder capable of dictating play behind the strikers. One who can take on defenders and give those defense splitting passes.On his day Chisamba can assume that role but then his preference for show booting is his undoing.
This is, indeed a poor start for the lads and George…
Most Zambians wanted Janza to go. He left but Zambia failed to beat newcomers Guinea. So who is to blame, is Janza, chicken George or players. It’s time for FAZ to tap talents from rural areas not these useless players who even fail to pronounce xenophobia
Whats happening with the chipolopolo after winning the afcon 2012 is exactly the same with the PF after winning elections in 2011 ifintu fya lipena but people have continued supporting both teams blindly, when the government rebased our currency did they rebase our thinking capacities as well?
accept that this country has no footballers at the moment.when you do that you will find solutions.
How do you expect to score when your best striker is the goalkeeper.
Awe ifintu is over.
hahahahahaha the best scorer is the goal keeper le Mweene.
Viva Nawakwi.
Expect a lot useless results. You leave Patrick phiri just because you owe him and pick Lwandamina who played at international only once and a certificate ya ku memories no proper practical in terms of playing. Kalusha leka bambi ba bombe kolopa .
Ba coach ” icilufumo”, sign of laziness. How do you expect such a coach to energize the team?
I did not see any skills from the training ground in the team. Our local coaches are pathetic. All of them pot bellies, what a shame.
Wait until JayJay arrives to comment lol.
All you armchair critics wish Renard was still coach for Zambia. With results like this, Renard looks more and more like a genius.
The PE teacher was a draw specialists nothing new there!!
Win or Lose Galu and Co. are celebrating all the way to bank from their ticket racketeering schemes.
Zambia is going NOWHERE!!
Lwandamina is much far better than chi Janza. He read the game well but luck (the twelfth player) was not on Chipolopolo’s side. Passes were accurate and upper hand of ball possession.
Next time George, work on best combination of strikers.
As I radically & proactivelý blogged before the match on this same online medium! Despite of the tribe,Janza showed quality & skill to his matches! One other fact is that Zambian players are DULL in their heads-they don’t know why they have to kick the ball,to whom,what strength!
@Air Mukwai-you MUST be antfootball & very DULL!Which reading did you see when playing in such a manner sure! Your team was below par,& without any agenda! You must be a PF supporter,who are ever anathemic to the real issues,always in self denial-zwa! This team may not go anywhere if not radically changed,simply no quality & skill- its a chimpatempate pweteke pweteke kind of football! Even ZANACO plays far much better than this pwetepwete team of your reading,hope your were not immersed in jameson whisky as usual when watching,or your took Guinea B to be Chipolopolo!
Be a Patriotic Football (PF) keen follower and detour yourself from floccinaucinihilipilification and perverseness. Your icon coach had a good record of winning friendly games and a bad record of losing real games.
To qualify for Africa cup, to go and do what at the AFCON. Only one player was national soccer team material on the day and that was Fwayo Tembo.
I didn’t even bother to watch that gave,! Instead I went where there was no such noise.
The frontline is completely absent. So annoying to watch a winger who can’t even cross a ball – at national team level sure!!!! I was so pissed-off I left home in fear of kicking my own TV. What a farce!
Why have two defensive midfielders in Sinkala and Mtonga when you playing at home? Clearly that’s a defensive approach to the game.
Guinea Bissau came to frustrate and Zambia helped them to that cause by having two sitting midfielders. This shows that our local coaches ain’t equipped with the tactical nous of the game at this level.
Suprisingly enough Chisamba Lungu who is an attacking midfielder was left on the bench.
The central defenders kept heckling the ball forward because the two sitting midfielders didn’t fetch and distribute.
I think the less I say the better.
Congo will qualify from this group
Next couch pls. From where I stand, I can see patrick phiri warming to complement the efforts of Ester Phiri and Cathlene phiri while Mumbi phiri is waiting in the political terraces.
We lost or drew the game because we do not have goal getters currently in the national or the local league.For those of us who were there in the 70s and 80s we had players like Micheal Chabala,Jack Chanda,Fanny Hangunyu,Obby Kapita,Benard Chanda,Godfrey Munshya,Golden Kazika and others.Some of these players were not skillful but dependant on free balls in the eighteenth area or box and what you hear its a goal.We need to look or groom No 9 players who have just to wait and tap in any available cross in the box.That boy Patson Daka was a shadow of himself,Allan Mukuka was worse. Also players’s statue matters most.Zambians are skin and dwarfed who can not match the tall and physically built west Africans.
Now dat dual nationality is bout to be enacted into the constituition its time for galu and his cronies to f off and bring musonda boys into the team and build around them and ths team wil go very far…
It is now clear that the problem is not the coach. The problem are the players, they are finished. Let us go back to the drawing board and reconstruct a completely new team.
Meanwhile George MUST go!!!!
I did not watch the game from the beginning because I sensed that the going would be pathetic. However, I bravely tuned in towards the end and I could not believe the standard of play I saw. Chipantepante almost like those armature teams we see in our hometowns [Chongwe peacocks, Chisamba doves, Mpongwe swallows etc]. What has happened to the feared Chipolopolo boys? I challenge Kalu to hold a press conference and address the nation on measures his association are taking to remedy this seemingly irreversible slide. Hint: Please also engage an independent body to go round the country to get views from people on what we need to do to improve soccer standards in the country. We need to start watching good football once more. Some of us are BP patients.