Friday, March 29, 2024

Leostho Embarrass COSAFA Champions Zambia

Share

Chipolopolo on Thursday made an embarrassing start to their COSAFA Cup title defence with a 2-1 loss to Lesotho at Nelson Mandela Bay.

Fielding Zambia’s strongest lineup at a COSAFA Cup since 2007, Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic’s side dominated a first half but did it in off-tune fashion.

It was also an unacceptable defeat especially that Lesotho had lost 3-1 to eSwatini in their opening Group A match on Tuesday.

Justin Shonga put Zambia ahead in the 28th minute when he finished of a Gampani Lungu rebound.

Shonga’s goal came six minutes after he saw his header from Roderick Kabwe’s free-kick come off the beam.

Zambia then went onto the break with what was a seemingly promising lead.

However, a sign that things would not go according to plan for Zambia manifested themselves in the 65th minute with two sitters missed in succession.

Augustine Mulenga tame shot was poorly cleared but even more criminal was Gamphani Lungu’s rebound shot in front of an open goal that he instead astonishingly elected to fire wide.

Lesotho then sensed a weakness and tuned on the pressure with Tumelo Khutlang giving Zambia’s defence a torrid time after briefly testing the waters earlier in the first half.

Khutlang set up Motebang Sera for a brace in the 69th and 88th minutes to hand Lesotho their first COSAFA Cup win over Zambia since the 2000 quarterfinals in Maseru that they won 3-1 on post-match penalties following a 0-0 draw.

Chipolopolo now face eSwatini on July 10 in a match they must win with Botswana and South Africa to come thereafter in an uphill battle to retain their COSAFA Cup crown.

11 COMMENTS

  1. That is Covid 19 – 11 team for Zambia! Instead of giving us an exciting start after the 21 days mourning of KK, they continue giving us the same results…..

  2. It is shocking why they still have Micho. Micho is a club coach.
    Zambians have been asking for Chris Katongo as coach.

    1
    1
  3. Anyone who has trust and faith in this dazed, confused coach for chipolopolo must ve his brains checked. This chancer has brought Zambian football to its lowest ebb.

  4. The man needs time. However, am made to wonder what we are still doing there, are we waiting for this embarrassing moments or we simply don’t have enough courage to point at COVID as a scapegoat of our chickening out like our friends have done?.

  5. There is no coach under the sun who can improve that team. We must simply accept and lower our expectations. The Coach is working with rubbish material. Kabaso Chongo, Justin Shonga was not match fit. At the national level, should the coach waste the time teaching the players to trap the ball? to shoot properly? what are the club coaches doing? maybe we should look there so that we fix the problem at source.

  6. Micho is not a coach. In 90% of the games that he has been in charge of, he a conceded a goal or more. Even when we score first he fails to maintain the lead. Those that are saying he needs more time how many games has Micho messed up so far? Kamanga is Micho your wife who you can not easily divorce or your employee? With all the happenings in is this country leave us with one that we can enjoy.

  7. Why focus only on the coach ba Nostradamus. Ever since Kamanga arrived to adminstrate our soccer things dived South. Westopped qualifying for anything.

    • No, don’t crucify Kamanga, he’s not the coach. In terms of managing the affairs of FAZ, I would say he’s done well. He has provided the tools to Chipolopolo (coach) but the materials (players) in place have been difficult to mould together.

  8. we need more time to build up our national team to a competitive level, maybe another 3 years. Let us be patient

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading