Coach George Lwandamina has admitted that Gabon gave Zambia a good run in Tuesday evening’s international friendly match played at Heroes National Stadium in Lusaka.
Lwandamina’s side surrendered a first half lead to draw 1-1 with Gabon who arrived in Zambia less than two hours before kick-off time.
Skipper Rainford Kalaba’s 21 minute goal was cancelled by a late penalty taken by goalkeeper Moto Bitsek. “Gabon gave us a good run but we were resolute in defence; we denied them chances but they managed to score their goal through a penalty.
“We could have done better but we started with the same players who played in Nairobi,” Lwandamina said.
Zambia played against Gabon just 48 hours after beating Kenya 2-1 in a 2017 Africa Cup qualifier away in Nairobi.
“Playing two games in forty eight hours was not easy for them and I had to make several changes in the second half to avoid muscle cramps,” Lwandamina said.
And Gabon coach Stephane Boungouedza said Zambia were weak in defence.
“Zambia is a very good team but we noticed that their central defenders were slow so we concentrated our play on the wings where we have quick players.That strategy worked well for us because it resulted in us winning a penalty.
“Our initial strategy was to defend but we also observed that our opponent’s finishing was very poor despite their excellent display in build up,” Boungouedza said.
We the older soccer fans will remind you that when Gabon played Zambia in the 90s they did the same thing. They turned up an hour before the game and drove straight from the airport to Independence Stadium where they lost 1-0. They were scared because it was soon after the Gabon disaster and since the govt had not told us people the cause of the aircrash there was speculation that the Gabonese army could have shot the ZAF plane thinking it was enemy aircraft
Then why do even bother to play Zambia if they are still scared of us.
Chicken George is its a lie. Those small boys you are using is a shame. That is why Jocob Mulenga refused to come. You can be benching Lubambo Musonda in preference to jack mkandawire or Samu fimifimo….waitaya. Your poor judgement denied us a win over a weak team like Gabon. How do u remove the captain Kalaba and Mbesuma at the same when the match was very far from stoppage. Those subsitutions were useless with no timing. Even when we played Kenya, Kenya found a weak spot on those small boys like Chipesi…why not use munthali or Kabaso Chongo whom u dropped. We need a real coach not Lwandamina. Otherwise we shall fail to qualify to Afcon 2017 mark my words. we need fayo, jacob, satesate, singuluma, mukuka mulenga, davies nkausu and other for us qualify.
@alego, I give your analysis a thumps up, this coach can’t read a game and moreover even during post match interview , he failed to justify his failure. Also he is very poor in expressing himself in English.
@alego, You are completely correct. We need experienced players to start winning games, not that fluke in Nairobi where Zambia was under pressure for the entire second half.. We are lucky we didnt lose that game. The experience of Kennedy Mweene, Mbesuma, Kalaba, etc played major against Kenya.
Iwe na iwe ale go. This was a friendly. The coach can experiment
What was he experimenting when he used the same side that played in Kenya. Besides he says Zambia and I quote “Zambia played against Gabon just 48 hours after beating Kenya 2-1 in a 2017 Africa Cup qualifier away in Nairobi”. (What about Gabon, where they resting? foolish coach)
“Playing two games in forty eight hours was not easy for them and I had to make several changes in the second half to avoid muscle cramps. (Coach you knew this before the game, you had 23 players in your squad. Why didn’t you give chance to others?, learn to think like a coach)
Awe bwafya
Ati “Zambia played against Gabon just 48 hours after beating Kenya 2-1 in a 2017 Africa Cup qualifier away in Nairobi”. Question, what about the opponents)
“Playing two games in forty eight hours was not easy for them and I had to make several changes in the second half to avoid muscle cramps (What about the opponents)
Coach Lwandamina you knew very well about the date of this game before going to Kenya. You had 23 players in your squad which 2 teams. Why did you use the same players
In case you have forgotten in the old days, clubs could play a second game after 24 hours. Cup games were played on a Saturday and league games the following day. Some teams travelled as far as Lusaka on a Saturday to play a cup game and travelled back to places like Kitwe, Chingola and Chilies for…
Yes soccer fans should not just swallow anything that a coach says