Evans Kangwa is honored to have marked his debut as Chipolopolo captain with a victory.
Kangwa was picked to captain Chipolopolo against Bafana Bafana on October 11 just 24 hour after defender Kabaso Chongo was expelled from the team in Nairobi by coach Milutin Sredojevic citing technical reasons following Friday’s 2-1 away friendly loss to Kenya.
“It is a huge honour; I never expected to be captain for the national team. It is not easy but I was excited and it added something to my game against South Africa and I was so happy,” Kangwa said.
The striker from Russian club Arsenal-Tula added that the three-match friendly series was a success and a major lift ahead of November’s competitive engagements against Botswana in a 2021 AFCON 2021 Group H doubleheader.
Chipolopolo began their October schedule with a 1-0 home win over Malawi on October 7 in Lusaka before losing to Kenya on October 9 in Nairobi and later beating Bafana-Bafana 2-1 in South Africa on October 11 in Rustenburg.
Kangwa, including his fellow foreign-based call-ups, were only featured in the Kenya and South Africa friendlies after Micho fielded home-based players against Malawi.
“Actually, it was good experience and it is good that we came although it was difficult to travel due to the Covid-19,” Kangwa said.
“It is good that the coach has seen what we can give the national team and I think he will analyse and see where we can improve in these two friendlies we have played.
“It was a good lesson for the coach to see what we can do against Botswana because we need to win two games. He needs to analyse these friendlies critically so that we see our strengths and weakness so that we can use them against Botswana.”
Chipolopolo are bottom of Group H on zero points after two games played and have an uphill fight, battling to end a two successive AFCON absence.
With four games left, Botswana are third on 1 point, Zimbabwe have 4 points while leaders Algeria have 6 points.
