Pharaohs too powerful for Wasps
Egypt revived their hopes of appearing at the Fifa World Cup for the first time in 20 years with a 3-0 triumph over Rwanda in Cairo at the weekend.
It was a must-win for the Egyptians and a brace by midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika and a third goal by Hosny Abd Rabou in the second half ensured victory for the team that troubled Brazil and beat world champions Italy last month at the Fifa Confederations Cup in South Africa.
Victory lifted reigning African champions Egypt from last place on the Group C table to second, level on four points with Zambia and three adrift of Algeria at the halfway stage of the final qualifying phase.
Rwanda have only one point in the race to finish first and qualify for South Africa 2010, which shall be the first time the world football showpiece will be staged in Africa.
The matches double as eliminators for the 2010 African Nations Cup in Angola, with the top three teams on the final standings securing places at a championship staged every two years.
Although Egypt have lifted the Nations Cup trophy a record six times, the Pharaohs have managed just two Fifa World Cup appearances, with the last being at the 1990 finals in Italy where they went out after the first round.
A home draw with Zambia and an away loss to Algeria placed unexpected pressure on an Egyptian team, who were lacking captain Ahmed Hassan, fellow midfielder Ahmed Fathi and striker Amr Zaki through injury and suspension.
Hassan nonetheless rallied his teammates ahead of the crucial game by insisting all was not lost in the chase to overtake resurgent Algeria and they were quickly into their stride, albeit without being able to sting the Wasps’ defence.
[Kick Off]
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@Big Steve from SA
I beg to differ with you on Mbesuma. I think he will be in good shape come September. Even better if he goes to camp with the team in Holland. We need him to finish the ball in the 18yard box unlike the chipante pante we saw in the Algeria game, god goodness! Currently non of all the strikers you mentioned convince me to be as good as a fit Mbesuma in the 18yard. Emphasis on the word “fit”. He is the kind of player that thrives on good service and I still believe he can deliver in that formation. Tana also might have his own evils, but he is a much experienced defender than D.Banda and N.Mulenga who I think could contribute immensely in these remaining 3 games with his free kicks and ball heading capabilities. We need to make good use of set pieces. But that is just my opinion. Regardless, my point is that this is a tough situation we are faced with and let’s use the experienced players with maybe one or two youngsters to help us dig ourselves out of this hole. I have no objections on throwing Kalaba into the mix, I think he has the quality and skill and has a major role to play in unlocking this puzzle.
This is the only country whose tried and tested players are under-utilised and dumped. Shame to FAZ and coaching staff. My squad to take Zambia to wc.
_______________________Mweene_______________________
J. Musonda_______ HH _______ Chintu _______ Mbola
Kalaba ______ I. Chansa ____ A. Sinkala __ F. Katongo
C.Katongo ____________ J. Mulenga
Subs: Sakuwaha, Fwayo, Mayuka, Kakonje, Nyambe, D. Banda
If FAZ can organise high profile friendlies and let these play consistently btn now and September, Algeria will be in deep s***.
@Zamfoot
I think it is the most logical thing to say with the current status quo. I see Renard focusing on the Africa Cup and building a team for the future with the youngsters he has come to trust. I think after these series of qualifiers we will get to see more of the Mayuka’s and the Fwayo’s in the games. Zambia definitely have a bright future. This world cup is just a little too early for our boys.
I disagree with you on Tana. Nabakula balya.
We could use someone who can take a free kick like Tana. Yes… Kaka Balika is out of the next game at least it seems, so we must turn that negative into a positive and i feel it is possible with other personel older or younger… I am disappointed with the defeatist or realist omission from HR. He did say that before we started i think, but i think if we are in the mix and we are at this stage! We should push until the end regardless of whether this team is “too young” or “it is too early”. Do we want the experience of playing for the prise or do we want experience of playing for Afcon?
Danny, I always take how the Post reports with a pinch of salt, the Times or Daily Mail wrote from the same interview, he said with Egpyt winning, 3-0, it makes things more tough. I know the Post has twisted facts as usual, I am also a journalist but I am not a fan of the Post.
@danny
Danny, i am concerned about this statement aswell as i expressed, but i’m going to trust and respect it coming from our coach and others. Don’t worry, when the boys step on the field they’ll remember what they are playing for.
^I hope anyway. lol
When HR says we must forget about a WC berth, i’m sure he knows the magnitude of what he is saying. There’s nothing i can say, we have to just trust and have faith.
Dear Friends, this is a case of TWISTED LOGIC or as journalists call it SPIN par excellence.
Renard: 2010 World Cup race still ‘open’
ZAMBIA soccer team coach Herve Renard has said the race to qualify to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is open.
Renard, who returned from vacation on Thursday from his home city, Caen, in France, said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that Egypt’s 3-0 home win over Rwanda in a rescheduled match on Sunday night had made Group C interesting.
He said the campaign was still open for the three top contenders in Group C – Algeria, Egypt and Zambia to book a solitary slot to the first-ever World Cup on African soil.
The Frenchman, however, said anything less than victory against Algeria in the return match on September 5 in Algiers would be the end of the World Cup dream for the Chipolopolo, who have now dropped to third position after Egypt’s triumph.
Egypt inked their points tally to four to move into joint second position with Zambia, but the Pharaohs have a superior goal difference, having scored four goals and allowed three, compared to Zambia’s record of two goals in favour and three conceded from three games played.
Renard reiterated that Zambia’s primary goal was to qualify to the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola .
To make it to the last eight in the continent’s biennial 16-nations championship, a feat Zambia last achieved in the 1996 edition in South Africa.
“One thing to go to the World Cup is to win in Algeria and if we don’t win in Algeria, then it will be over for us. You must understand that this group is not finished. We also have Egypt coming here and we have to travel to Rwanda. Against Rwanda, it will be very difficult,” he said.
The former Caen defender-cum-midfielder said, having watched his charges create six good scoring chances against Algeria in the 0-2 defeat at Konkola Stadium in Chililabombwe, he was optimistic Zambia would triumph over the North Africans.
“We have to be confident against Algeria, this is football. Anything is possible. Having watched the match against Algeria on video, I think we had good chances of winning that match, we were just unfortunate, but that’s football.
“As I have been saying, the difference that will determine the team that will qualify to the World Cup from our group will be the confrontation involving Algeria, Egypt and Zambia,” he said.
Renard said in the Algeria return match, the team would miss the services of Sporting Braga midfielder Rainford Kalaba who has been ruled out of the fixture after picking up a second yellow card in the campaign.
And Zambia captain Christopher Katongo said in a separate interview that the race to South Africa was not over until the last whistle but that the pressure was now on Zambia.
He said the players would have to put in their best and score goals to put Zambia back on track.
Katongo, who returns to his Armenia Bielefeld base in Germany today, said Zambia just had to fight to win all the remaining matches.
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and we respect people’s views, but we are the ones who will be playing and we need to play our lungs out and score. It is not over until it is over,” Katongo said.
Meanwhile, FAZ has arranged a friendly match with FC Utrecht in Holland and is finalising two more international friendlies for the Chipolopolo boys before the Algeria encounter.
While the Chipolopolo will be playing Utrecht, the new club for striker Jacob Mulenga, their North African opponents, Algeria, will also be playing a preparatory tie with Uruguay next month.
The Zambian team is scheduled to leave for Holland on August 17 to begin preparations for the fourth match in the last round of the 2010 qualifiers.
FAZ communications officer Erick Mwanza said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the Holland camping would mainly consist of local-based players while the foreign-based legion would join camp a week before the Algeria match as per Fifa regulations.
Mwanza said coach Renard had made a new proposal for camping which was still being discussed at management level.
Now Algeria must fall – Renard
By STEPHEN PHIRI
COACH Herve Renard says Zambia must beat Algeria on September 5 following Egypt’s 3-0 win over Rwanda in Sunday’s 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
“For the World Cup, we are are obliged to beat Algeria,” Renard said.
He said in Lusaka yesterday that the encounter against Algeria was a must-win for Zambia if any hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup were to be entertained.
Algeria lead Group C with seven points, Egypt and Zambia are second with four points each but the Pharaohs have a better goal-aggregate.
Egypt have scored five goals and conceded four while the Chipolopolo have hit the target twice and allowed three.
Rwanda are at the bottom of the table with one point.
He also bemoaned the 0-2 loss to Algeria on June 20 in Chililabombwe.
“Rwanda drew at home with Algeria and we lost. We drew in Egypt and they (Rwanda) lost,” Renard said in trying to work out some permutations.
He also said it was important for Zambia to focus on qualifying for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola while not losing track of the World Cup.
Zambia will set up a training camp in the Netherlands by August 17 to prepare for the match against Algeria.
The Chipolopolo will host Egypt on October 10 and will wrap up the qualifying series with an away tie to Rwanda on November 14.
The winners in all the five groups will qualify for the World Cup in South Africa while the second and third-placed teams will book a ticket to the tournament in Angola.
@Chamz
you don’t see Algeria winning in Cairo, but we know Algerian team can beat Zambia in Algiers.
” We need to beat Algerian but our main focus is the Afcon ”
HR trying to save his job.
@Algerian
That remains to be seen doesn’t it?
Chamz, thanks for articles in question, if you read them there is no cause for concern other than the obvious.
We will beat Algeria in Algeria and later on beat Egypt on the Zambian soil there after beat Rwanda in Kigali. Zambia will have 13 points all together. And so we need a strong team. this must comprise Isaac Chansa, Felix Katongo, Chris Katongo,Mweene, Joseph Musonda, Kalaba, Nyambe, Mbola, Sinkala, collins,kampamba,jacob, william, HH,kakonje, Denis, Mayuka, and fwayo.
Guys, I agree that HR probably shouldn’t have said that, but we have to be realistic also. We can’t just decide today that we are going to the WC and it happens tomorrow. Football in Zed has gone through a massive decline (hopefully things are improving now), our clubs were broke, our league was weak, we didn’t have any infrastructure… the list is endless. Why is it then that we think we should go to WC? Our team is young (it’s not an excuse)and have a lot to learn, just look at both the Algerian’s goals for proof. However, they are the best we have at the moment. We are on the right path, but qualifying from this group is going to be very tough, we have been placed with 2 North African teams and history shows us that we don’t tend to do well against them.
Sorry, just read the story as written in Times and Daily Mail. HR was actually being very positive. Those guys at The Post do like to sensationalise.
I still think that we need to be realistic though.
I think Chamz postings here have cleared the air with regards to what the coach said. He obviously DID NOT SAY the crap twisted story in the post so why are we busy talking about the coach being realistic when he did not at anytime rule out Zambias chances of 2010. How can we develop such a pessimistic view over some crap story from the POST. Now we want to start singing the old story of money and infrastructure yet without the money and all that we drew in cairo and beat Rwanda. Gosh what is wrong with us, does the word optimistic not occur in our dictionaries????
Bane, we still have a big chance and even with that we have already started crying. Zedians sometimes kaya mwe!!!!
What ever happens, Zambia must fight to the end, even missing out on goal difference would be better, why should we give up with 3 games to go? The US taught us a valuable lesson in SA. We have only lost one game.
This was taken from the Djurgardens website and is a report on the game they played against Helsingborgs. Good to see that Boyd seems to be doing alright over there.
Djurgården proved that they are on their way of becoming a team to pay attention to as they defeated Helsingborg on Monday evening.
By Jonas Carlsson
Following poor performances in the spring season where the team has dropped to a relegation spot, this 2-1 win definitely gave the fans hope of something better to come. The re-start of Allsvenskan following the summer break could not have started better for Djurgården.
Before the game two surprises were given in the starting line-up as Matias Jonson returned to football after a year of absence from the game and new transfer Yosif Ayuba got the chance as left back immediately. Fan favorite Jonson gave examples of his trademark fighting spirit and experience in this game, which will be much valuable for the rest of the season.
Jonson played fifty minutes and it was during this time Djurgården performed their best football of the season. The first half was really enjoyable for the fans as the team had good attacking combinations and it looks like the players have regained some confidence during the break. Helsingborg also created a couple of chances, but it was Djurgården who left the pitch in half-time with a well deserved 2-0 lead. Patrik Haginge headed the first ball into the back of the net, which was his first goal ever for the club. Sebastian Rajalakso then extended Djurgården´s lead following an excellent attack. Croatian Hrvoje Milic played the ball into the penalty box where Mwila passed the ball to Rajalakso who made no mistake in front of goal.
Early in the second half Djurgården could have been given the opportunity to secure the win as Helsingborg goalkeeper Pär Hanson brought down Boyd Mwila. What looked like an obvious penalty from the stands was not a judgment made by the referee who decided not to blow the whistle. Shortly thereafter Helsingborg instead reduced Djurgårdens lead on a counter attack as Rasmus Jönsson converted Erik Sundin´s pass. It should be noted, though, that Helsingborg also was denied a goal scoring opportunity in the first half in a situation which very well could have resulted in a penalty.
The second half was characterized by a Helsingborg team that took more control of the ball and Djurgården had to concentrate on defending themselves. Besides a couple of defensive errors the team managed to complete the task and got three valuable points with a 2-1 win. Djurgården´s win meant they left the relegation zone. Their current position will result in a qualification game against the third placed team from Superettan for a place in Allsvenskan next season. The display in the first half today and the win against top team Helsingborg indicates a lot more though. It may be to early to draw conclusions from only one game, but it feels as if Djurgården is back in the game – a place where this team belongs.
the problem we ve in zambia is the selection of players.players like sinkala and sichone cant be called because the FAZ president has issues with them,its sad no wonder zambian football wont improve.again choosing the first eleven is a problem,look at the game against egypt fwayo came in as a sub and played better i dont know why he didnt start against the algierins,players should be picked on merit not just because somebody is a captain no!
Algeria-3-7
Egpyt 3-4
Zambia 3-4
Rwanda 3-1
3 games to go, how can people give up?
Wise and others. All the players we cried for have been given enough time by HR. Maybe only Sinkala, Boyd and Clifford, have not been played. How much time was does Fwayo need? He played for almost 45 minutes against Algeria, Mayuka played, the much sang about Given failed to shine in two games. Mbesuma missed a penalty.
Chris is dedicated just like Aaron Mokoena, he is not as talented as Benni but shows commitment for Zambia.
Chamz, I’m not giving up. We have 3 games left, 2 are away from home, 1 is at home against the African Champions. Realistically we need to win all these matches. These are facts.
I am definately not giving up, but I am saying that we need a dose of reality. The odds are against us and we have to realise this, don’t live on blind optimism because that is counter productive.
I for one am NOT giving up.
ZAMFOOT, ZAMFOOT, ZAMFOOT: We are still waiting for the Kachepa you promised us last week. Why do we have to settle for mere speculation on transfers from bloggers when this is yor area of expertise? Please give as something, anything, even if it is mere speculation for us soccer enthusiasts to chew on for the time being. Try to dig deeper and be more aggressive. You know I had dag up the story of jacob I week and a half before you reported it just by googling news and translating it!!!! You can do way much better than this surely.
the Nigerian referee was a disgrace. the Egyptians know how to corrupt africain referees. i hope they will suffer in Kigali and i expect a revenge from the Zambians for the spitting and insults they received in Cairo. one, two, three viva l’Algerie.
Watching the Nigerian referee in the Egypt vs Rwanda game on sunday reminded me of Jean Fidele Diramba the Gabonese referee who killed us on October 10, 1993 in Casablanca, Morocco. For those of you who was young then, Diramba’s failure to call fouls, made Moroccans advance as a better team for much of the afternoon, though they played particularly fine from midfielder Rachid Daoudi and Mustapha Hadji, a ‘then’ 22-year-old left wing from the French second division making his international debut for Morocco. Zambia had two final chances but Charles Musonda’s cross slid untouched across an open goal mouth and Gibby Mbasela’s header sailed just left of the post.
football is fifty fifty but sumtyms i wonder y we always have excuses…..y cant we just get the results…in 4 years tymwen we fail again to go to the WC we’ll av summore excuses
1-Algeria is the best team in this group,so you need to stop talking about “Zambia or Egypt in WC SA 2010″
2- Rwanda is gone,I gess Egypt knew that they don’t have to play a good football,yep! ther’s another way to win the 3 points.
3-For F**K SAKE stop calling us ARABS,it has nothing to do with football so stop throwing it in our faces and focus on the game.
_____ALL RESPECT ,JUST KEEP IT ABOUT FOOTBALL____
Whilest I respect the concern being raised here about poor officiating but the thing is we can always win in Algeria ,lets remain focused.Things could CHANGE espcially after Rwanda gets a positive result against Egypt IN rWANDA .They can still beat Algeria.Presure is mounting on Algeria whilest the Rwanda guyz wants to go to AFCON.
We surely need to continue being positive the loss to Algeria was a set back we need to fight with our all. Like all postive fans on this blog, Is still see Zambia winning in Algeria , Konkola and and the final game against Rwanda.
Western african referees have always been suspects for Zambia. No one has said this, but the second goal by Algeria was scored from an offside position while Kalaba’s free kick had gone inn hitting the top of the inner net before bouncing back on the field of play. I hope we will not be given a western african to afficate for the remaining games. Dont we have referees southern of the equator?
Good question about refs this side of the continent, only one fifa ref seems to be making a serious mark and seems to be officiating left right and centre and this is Jerome Damon. I also wonder why west and north africa seems to produce more high profile refs than central and southern africa. Even the only african ref to officiate a worldcup final came from North Africa.
Zambia seem to play better away than at home.
The Arabs will make sure that one Arab African team makes to 2010. I am sure the ref for the Zambia/Egpyt game will come from either Morrocco, Tunisia, Libya or even Algeria!!! This is a fact. Zambians must learn to put pressure on referees, CAF and FIFA. Lets do it like Sir Alex and Chelsea.
Memos from CAF, FIFA
SOCCER REVIEW WITH CHAPADONGO LUNGU
ON the Confederation of African Football (CAF) website, the 2010 World Cup qualifiers page has a TBA (to be agreed) blank space on the venue of the Zambia versus Egypt game in October.
What that means is that both FIFA and CAF are not sure and undecided yet on whether Konkola Stadium can be trusted any longer with a match of such top billing. How embarrassing for Zambia.
How embarrassing for Zambia in the eyes of the international community. How embarrassing that after 44 years of independence, the country is being terribly disparaged before the world for having no worthy stadium.
It begs the question: Is Independence Stadium so bad that no international soccer match can be played there until the so-called refurbishing which seems to take an eternity? Is not Independence at its worst, still better than the much maligned Konkola “potato” field?
I am told Sports Minister, Kenneth Chipungu, is in China negotiating deals with over the stadium which was partly demolished about two years ago.
Were people not warned against demolishing the stadium before putting everything in place?
And how come stadiums elsewhere that were built at about the same time as Independence are still solid whether in Great Britain or next door, Malawi’s Kamuzu Stadium? Wasn’t the Kamuzu Stadium built in 1964 when Zambia and Malawi attained independence from Britain?
The state of Konkola Stadium in terms of security has embarrassed Zambia enough and I wish to strongly implore the Engineering Association of Zambia, in national interest, examine the structure and give the nation expert opinion.
Were we not told last year that some of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers will be played at Independence?
After all, there is an artificial turf in place at the stadium. But it is now highly unlikely because of the lack of works at the stadium.
I know there is the global economic meltdown but we can surely spare some money to rebuild Independence lest we became a laughing stock again.
The Independence has served Zambia well and we can now put up a big screen on Humanism Hill to decongest the stadium. Wimbledon has a similar hill and does that for tennis fans.
By the way, the Humanism Hill has been occupied by unplanned settlements, suffocating the old faithful Independence.
Mind you, the reason we are training in foreign countries is because we have bad facilities in our country.
If we had good stadiums, we would not be travelling to South Africa, Holland or any other place on the planet for purposes of training.
Perhaps I should talk about the stadium which is being built in Ndola instead of wasting time on the Independence.
President Banda officially launched the construction of the stadium and it is hoped the structure, envisaged to be super, will be put up in two years.
May it be so, because we are tired of memos from FIFA and CAF reminding us about how bad Konkola is.
Email: clungu@daily-mail.co.zm, lunguchapa@yahoo.com
Bane just accept it. Zambia is just in s***. Algeria mean business. See below:
Egypt win can’t shake Algeria
By CHISHALA MUSONDA
THE Algerian national team is not been shaken by Egypt’s victory over Rwanda in Sunday’s 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup qualifier, saying their focus is to beat Zambia and Rwanda in their home fixtures.
Egypt beat Rwanda on Sunday to revive chances of a World Cup place and moved to four points, on level as Zambia, but the African champions are ahead on goal superiority. They three behind leaders Algeria while
Rwanda are at the bottom with a point.
The Desert Foxes’ captain, Karim Ziani told the Le Buteur of Algeria that the Algerians are aiming to amassing 13 points which will guarantee them a place at the World Cup finals before their final group fixture against Egypt in Cairo.
Algeria host Zambia on September 5 and Rwanda on October 10. Algeria’s last game will be against Egypt in Cairo on November 14.
“We will do everything to reap 13 points before going to Egypt in November and qualify to the World Cup. Sincerely, I dream to see the Algerian flag in South Africa,” Ziani said.
The Algerian skipper said Egypt’s 3-0 win over Rwanda did not surprise him although he was not interested in the outcome of the match.
“Besides, this is not a surprise to me, I think that the Egyptians are able to win in Rwanda and in Zambia.
“All what interests me are our two home games where we face Zambia and Rwanda which we must absolutely win,” he said.
And defender, Rafik Heliche, also said the Algerians did not care about the Pharaohs’ win. He said his team’s interest is to beat Zambia and Rwanda.
Heliche told Echoroukonline that although Egypt scored three times, the victory came in late stages of the match.
Egypt broke the deadlock in the 66th minutes through Mohamed Aboutrika before he added his second late in injury time.
Hosny Adb Rabo scored the other goal from the spot-kick.
“Although Egypt won by a big scoreline…Egypt played at home and found it difficult to beat Rwanda and could only beat them in the late minutes of the second half.
“The most important thing for us is to beat Zambia and Rwanda without waiting for results of the matches Egypt will play with the other teams,” he said.
Heliche said members of the Algerian national team are aware of their responsibilities, which are to fulfill Algerian people’s dream of qualifying for the World Cup in 2010.
Algeria beat Zambia 2-0 in Chililabombwe on June 20 to move to seven points while the Chipolopolo remained stuck on four.
The Desert Foxes had earlier beaten Egypt 3-1. In the first group game, Algeria held Rwanda to a goalless draw in Kigali.
The top teams in the five groups will qualify for the World Cup in South Africa while the second and third finishers will join the leaders at the Africa Cup in Angola.
@Anonymous
This is an Algerian point of view. If you were Algerian you would most probably be in the same line of thought. Us Zedians really dont care if Algeria, Egypt or even FIFA have written us off with regards to SA2010. We as Zambians know were our strengths lie and know that the loss to Algeria was just the loss of one battle in the war. We are only 50% done with qualifiers, we still have a three game chance to make it through.
Bribing referees (by the way a strong rumour is that one of our ZAMBIAN character was caught red-handed trying to bribe the referee in Chingola during the Germany World Cup qualifiers in that match Senegal beat us). This is a match again a TRIED and TESTED Laughter Chilembe was brought back by the same Kalu people are accusing of hating Sinkala). The rumour further says the caught character could be a top ranking official (maybe chairman!!!) of a reknowned Zambian Club. Rumour further says, even recently attempts were made to bribe a referee.
TRIED and TESTED: For once i urge HR to bring back the so called TRIED and TESTED that are not even better than Ahmed Hassan, Aboutrika, Mido, Zaki who are our opponents that the so called inexperienced boys managed to hold but who had beaten our teams comprising the TRIED and TESTED players. The last time the TRIED and TESTED Sichone was tried at Independence Stadium, he was a disaster. Can we have the following-Harry Milanzi, Sinkala, Sichone, Isaac Chansa, Davis Phiri etc so that this thing of TRIED & TESTED players is a thing of the past. With or without the TRIED and TESTED players, my opinion is that the results would not have been the same, unless the TRIED and TESTED were in mould of Drogba, Kalou,Yaya, Kolo, Eto, Zaki, Mido etc playing for top flight teams in the same countries where our so called TRIED and TESTED are wallowing and keep devaluing in terms of league teams they play for.
In all fairness the youngsters have done commendably well and i can assure you that the TRIED and TESTED would never have fared any better. Please, please, Kalu and HR bring back these dinosaurs and let’s see whether we will do any better that we didn’t do before we them. For all i know when and not if we falter, people will rush to say that we brought them too late and had they been there before we would have gone to SA2010. For once i cry that these dinosaurs be brought back seeing as indespensability is the way to go for us.
You make it sound like there is a whole list of names that people are calling for. Noone has ever called for Davies Phiri or Milanzi. I think in all fairness the one name that has popped up and for ver god reason is that of Sinkala. We simply dont have anyone that is a natural in that position at the moment.
Uncle Bob, you have made my day!! ha! you guys have a wit sense of humour.
I agree with you, I don’t think the players we are crying for will make a difference, we just need to score-that is our problem.
Big Steve I don’t think there’s much Sinkala can do at this point. I say its better to use the youngster as We are preparing them for the future. I once was a big fan of Sinkala, I remember when they played at the U20 WC. You’ll agree with me when i say Sinkala was a good leader in that team, but He wasn’t the best player. This was also true in the national team He has never been our best player. Like Uncle Bob’s put it, if he was on the same level as the Eto’s then I’d be asking for him to be included in the team. At this point I think its best for HR to work with the tools on hand, shuffle his hand and see if He can come up with a winning formula.
JC`s mentality should not be mistaken for Zambian mentality Please if the guy is a pesimist .Let him wallow in his own negativity .So Chamz dont worry about JC he definately wont be in the starting eleven when we go to algeria
Chamz and Anonymous,
I take note of your good comments. Please dont misconstrue me. I am as patrotic as you are and i will be happy to see Zambia qualify to the World Cup. We have a young and surely promising team, no doubt.
What I am sounding out is a warning based on pragmatism. There is no need in us massaging ourselves with dreams and squad permutations without taking into account reality on the ground.
Our team is not yet solid and complete.This can be evidenced based on the last two games against Rwanda and Algeria. More the reason why some pundits on this site keep calling for all sorts of names to be recalled to the team.
Yes I watched the US. But the US are a proven side not only in the just ended tournament. They have had decent performances before and are a determined lot considering that they are not a major footballing nation. Zambia is not a proven side and has been an average side in Africa for that matter, for more than a decade now.
As we approach the next three games, the Technical Bench should therefore be strategic. My view is that we should avoid defeat in Kigali at all costs. The Rwandese are athletic and pyhiscal. Our Technical bench has to look long and hard on this. Egypt as I have said before, are a proven side and it will not be easy in Chilis. Again, we should avoid a defeat and dont slip the way we did against Algeria. These two games will determine our destiny in AFCON. One thing that we should also note is that Algeria and Egypt are scoring goals. Our Technical Bench has to do something about scoring, seriously.
There should definately be a better performance than the last two games both tactically and scoring wise.
Apologies Ba Big Steve from SA, for my cynism. Like Gametime 12 has said, i just don’t agree that Sinkala will make us qualify for SA2010 over and above what we have. Unless all what we want is for him to make some difference (VERY MINIMAL i can assure you, yes then i will agree because it is not like he’s better than the opponents we will be facing who are at more competitive clubs and miles ahead of him.Eeh he’s a Zambian and deserves a call-up if the coach desires(a point i have always belaboured) but as a privelege and not a right to being called.
JC If Zambia was in the same region as the US then we would have a better or similar record. The US is just polishing up on its game same process the Zambian national team is going through. The only team that “looks” solid and complete in our group is Algeria. This is because of what they have achieved thus far in the group. So if the other teams are struggling as well, why put off Zambia? You cant tell me Egypt is going to make it while We share the same number of points. I understand that when Algeria shamed us at home, our chances of qualifying slipped away from our grasp. I’ve watched all the games in our group, all i can say is that We still have a chance. Its a very slim chance, but its still a chance.
we just need to learn how to bribe.Bribery has become part of the game.
Few points about the referee of the Egypt-Rwanda game:
1. Imaginary penalty offered to the Egyptians when Rwanda was trying to equalize, therefore ending the contest and de-motivating the Rwandan players.
2. The best defensive player of Rwanda got red-carded after 2 yellow cards, therefore offering to Egypt even bigger chances to score more.
3. Offered the possibility to Egypt to score at the 6th minute of extra-time against a 10-man team while the official extra-time was only 4 minutes.
4. Gave 2 yellow cards and one red card to Rwanda while he did not give a single yellow card to Egypt.
Now you tell me, how can African Football ever progress ?