Thursday, March 28, 2024

Zamabia rally to end 2017 qualifiers on a respectable note

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Zambia dug deep to salvage a 1-1 home draw against Kenya on Sunday in a dead-rubber played at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola to close their unsuccessful 2017 Africa Cup Group E qualifiers on a respectable note.

The home sides dominated Kenya but a a second half goal from Timbe Masika rattled the 2012 champions before Zambia captain Rainford Kalaba saved the day with a late equalizer.

Zambia stuttered throughout the game with the usually prolific striker Winston Kalengo out-of-sorts and missing the teleplay he has enjoyed with the absent Collins Mbesuma who was suspended for the game.

The first half was scoreless but Zambia enjoyed the lions-share of possession that they failed to convert into goals with Kalaba testing Boniface Oluoch from range in the 3rd minute but the Kenya goalkeeper saved the shot with ease.

Kalaba then put the ball through for Kalengo in the 23rd minute but the striker was sluggish and couldn’t find his way past David Owino.

Kenya had two great opportunities towards the end of the first half that ended scoreless both from Jesse Were who saw his 39th minute shot deflected for a corner and two minutes later fired high.

Timbe then put Kenya ahead after he chipped the ball over defender Simon Silwimba before further benefiting from some poor judgement by goalkeeper Jacob Banda who rushed out to try and mitigate the danger but it was too little too late.

Zambia then went into panic mode as they looked like facing the prospect of a second straight Group E defeat.

Fortune for Zambia came in the 86th minute when Kalaba tapped-in the ball from close-range off a short pass from Felix Katongo to see the host breathe a sigh of relief.

15 COMMENTS

  1. Respectable? Drawing with Kenya at home is called respectable? In a group with Kenya Guinea you come number 3 and you want to call this respectable! Elyo please mwebena Zambia have some work ethics please or try and be professional. A stadium that’s hardly five years old with such a brown patch for a play field? Don’t you have professional groundsmen? The Arthur Davies pitch looks better looked after although it is not good either

  2. The patch has a mechanized watering system and the grass appears green when viewed live from inside the stadium. Why it appears brown on TV is something that begs answers. It may require black soil to grow it dark grèen.

    • But when the stadium was opened the grass was looking very green. After every televised match the grass was turning browner and browner

  3. The performance by the Chipolopolo was so disappointing. They were playing as if preparing foe crucial match and now were afraid to pick some injuries. No wonder we have failed to make it to Gabon 2017. The selection of players is also questionable with due respect to Coach George Lwandamina. Local Coaches always have this problem. A slight bias towards certain players especially those coming from his club. This happens everywhere. Even those employing have a certain bias. It appears the coach wanted to provide a training session for his players for match against Sundowns. Jacob banda is a good goal keeper yest but not at Zambia’s high level with teams like Nigeria. This is because at times he allows silly goals. The other question is who said Levy Mwanawasa stadium was a…

  4. Who said Levy Mwanawasa Stadium was a permanent home for the Chipolopolo. We should also use Heroes Stadium in Lusaka. After all Lusaka has a high population that the Copperbelt. Coming to the playing surface at Levy. Its a very big shame that the pitch with sprinklers underneath looks terribly dry. First of all who is in charge of maintaining that playing surface? There is a big contrast between the infrastructure and the playing surface. If you don’t know what to do advertise for pitch maintenance at levy so that that particular Company responsible can even charge all those placing their adverts around the inner circle. But please work of that playing surface otherwise more ensnarement is comming

    • The adverts are paid to the rights owner of the game (in this case FAZ) not the groundsmen. FAZ pays for using the stadium. The stadium management uses that money to look after the entire stadium.

  5. Terrible play and very embarrassing display. We are not ready for world cup with that type of play. period. Are you sure Adrian Chama, was better that Blonson Chama or Musonda the veteran? What kind of selection is this ba coach? That game needed a seasoned midfielder who is able to run with ball towards the goal mouth, this is when you need people like Chisamba Lungu to push the game into a hyper gear to create chances of scoring. When Felix came in you saw how he was pressing the game and put Kenya under pressure. Long balls are not good game when you have height disadvantage. To be honest if you need something out of the world cup qualifiers then not George, not Igesund but some tactician to wake up Zambia sleeping football.

    • Am a kenyan and I also thought the coach was testing his club players, in this match Zesco had more than seven players on the pitch and the coach knew that his Kenyan player were going to play due to their familiarity with the environment,good practice for Zesco.

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