December 10, 2009
The Frenchman will shift his attention to AFCON
by Whisper
So we have been eliminated. Dumped unceremoniously out of the CECAFA Cup by the semi-autominous nation of Zanzibar.
Well, calling Zanzibar a nation might be pushing it a bit. In most people’s reckoning the island located 25 kilometres of Tanzania’s coast is nothing more than one of its provinces, and FIFA agrees. That is why the world’s governing body refuses to allow Zanzibar to even enter a team into World Cup qualifying.
But these small details didn’t stop the 11 members of Zanzibar’s national football team from taking to the field on Monday afternoon and putting up a splendid performance against their more illustrious opponents and snatching a famous victory (their first in 6 meetings) via penalties.
Neither team could ink the score sheet during 90mins regulation time and the Zanzibar’s more composed penalty taking, combined with the heroics of their substitute ‘keeper Mohammed Khamis led to victory.
Incidentally, Khamis came on as an injury time substitute in what seems like a perfectly calculated piece of strategy by the Zanzibar coach Souleymane Sane. I wonder if Monsieur Renard took note of this astute bit of management.
One hopes that the Frenchman is aware that if Zanzibar, a country which doesn’t participate in CAF and FIFA organised competitions can eliminate the Chipolopolo, then it’s very much possible for his side to cause ‘an upset’ over his so called ‘Big Teams’ like Cameroon.
Hopefully Renard won’t be star struck since his dream is to coach the Indomitable Lions of Yaounde!
Anyway, I digress, the purpose of this article isn’t to belittle the accomplishments of Zanzibar or rubbish Zambia and our beleaguered coach. So, well done Zanzibar and hard luck Zambia.
Now, onto business. The reason I am not too fussed about our latest loss is because I think it needed to happen in order for us to focus on a far bigger and important prize. Let me explain.
In just 35 days Zambia will be taking to the field for their first match in the 2009 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. Our opponents will be Tunisia who won the competition in 2004 when they hosted tournament. In the two subsequent editions (2006 and 2008) they have qualified to the quarter finals. In the race for SA 2010 they ran Nigeria to the wire only losing out on the last day of games. So, let’s just say that they have pedigree.
Lest we forget there are another two teams in the group, Cameroun and Gabon.
In Cameroun we have Africa’s strongest team. In November’s FIFA ranking they moved up to 11th in the world, sandwiched between Croatia and Greece.
Gabon might be seen as the team with least to offer in the group, but a quick look at their qualification route to Angola shows that they finished second to Cameroun in their group, ahead of Emmanuel Adebayor’s Togo and traditional African powerhouses Morocco.
Bring 'em on! Felix Katongo a.k.a Jet Li will be looking forward to revenge the 5-1 bashing by Samuel Eto'o. 'Feli-Goal' was named man of the match in that game despite Zambia losing.
So, with all the information I have given above, what plans do you think the Football Association of Zambia have put in place to prepare our players for Africa’s showcase football tournament and outfox the competition? Erm, eish, how do I say this? It doesn’t actually seem like anything has been organised.
Now, is it just me or does this seem like complete madness and a recipe for disaster?
Are we being treated to another FAZ special? Just in case, can I ask any Zambians resident in Angola to restrain their appetites and alcohol intake over the festive period? Perhaps you could all start polishing your boots and jogging too? You never know you might get a call on the afternoon of 13th January!
In all seriousness, this is ridiculous! Whilst we are receiving daily reports on what our opponents are doing to ready themselves via BBC online and other sports websites. A quick look at our local newspapers reveals nothing but reports on how our revered football association president is in South Africa helping out at the SA 2010 draw, and in the best demonstration of multitasking since being elected, is able to beat up journalists at the same time!
It's been 'eyes on Kalusha' after the incident in Cape Town
For any FAZ official who might read this. Let me sum up what the competition is doing, perhaps it will serve as an example of how we might want to try and prepare the team.
Immediately following the CAN draw in Luanda officials from Cameroun, Tunisia and Gabon went to Lubango (where our group will be based) to assess the city’s infrastructure and make hotel reservations for their teams. Cameroun and Gabon will both be accommodated at the luxurious Lubango Palencras Negras Hotel. Whereas the Tunisians have opted for a hotel closer to the city’s stadium. I don’t know where Zambia will be staying?
Cameroun will be camping in Tanzania and will play two preparatory matches against that country’s national team, the Taifa Stars. Didier Drogba and co will arrive in the country on 2nd January, having gathered in Yaounde beforehand. They will fly straight to Angola on 9th January.
Gabon will be in Bloemfontein in South Africa’s Free State. At first this might seem like a strange choice, but when questioned Gabon’s coach Alain Giresse revealed the method behind the madness. Bloemfontein lies 1,700 metres above sea level, exactly the same as Lubango. It seems that Giresse and Gabon are astute at looking at the finer details.
Despite the Tunisian Football Association sacking Portuguese coach Humberto Coelho following the Carthege Eagles’ loss to Mozambique in the team’s final qualifying game. The association has acted swiftly to engage a new coach and recently released the preparation schedule for the team’s assault on the cup in January. The locally based players will come together on 21st December and have a local camp in Sousse until 28th December. Thereafter, they will be joined by their professional colleagues and fly out to the UAE for a week-long camp. The Tunisian’s are likely to face Egypt in a friendly in UAE because the latter will be there also.
Basically, our group mates are getting on with it and getting themselves prepared for battle, while we sit on our hands and wait for some well-meaning country to offer us a fully expense paid for trip somewhere or is it Spain again in which we will be expected to face Andalusian select sides!
Without wishing to get anyone into trouble, myself included, I spoke with one of our professional players the other day (these days you can get a slap for such). I asked the young man about whether he had heard from FAZ with regards preparations, when they would like him to report and what plans they had. His response was unfortunately not surprising, ‘BaWhisper (he obviously doesn’t call me that, but hey, I don’t want a slap so I’m not revealing my identity), nothing. I haven’t heard anything’.
So when we finally do cobble together some plan we will hurriedly phone the guy mentioned above and demand that he jump on the next plane and come. Forgetting that he is paid by his club and his coach might have pencilled them in for an upcoming game. The result is that the player has to make his excuses to the coach and leave, in which case he might be deemed unreliable by the coach and drop down the pecking order at the club. Or, he stays a few days longer and plays in the match, in which case FAZ will probably brand him unpatriotic.
The national team is set start preps on December 20, 2009.
Okay, so following a fairly long explanation that is why I am not sad to be out of CECAFA. The tournament was a distraction and kept the public, press and government occupied and not asking questions about CAN 2010. That distraction is now out of the way so let the questions about camping for Angola flow!
Btw. Great to hear that Zanaco will begin preps for next year’s African Champs League next week. Fantastic planning and organisation by Wedson Nyirenda, see with a bit of foresight we have the ability. Well done Wedson!!
42 Comments on "Blog:We are out. Yay!!"
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soccer fan on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 11:25 AM
i agree with you whisper,i feel bad seeing teams go to other countries other than zambia for camping,if we had a stadium in slowezi and good hotels we would be benefiting from over spills of angola 2010 and sa 2010. we dont need to go to spain or south africa to set up camp in northwestern which has similar wheather patterns to northwestern.
as i am writing this zimbabwe is busy selling it self and brazil is thinking of setting up camp ahead of sa 2010. look at livingstone’s geographical position with south africa. we would be benefiting greatly,but its a pity this once a life time opportunity will never be near zambia again.but its not late for places like lstone,
Big Steve from SA on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 11:51 AM
Very well written article. I just ave one issue though, a lot of people seem to be downplaying our loss to Zimbabwe in the Cosafa and the more recent loss to Zanzibar. Player confidence is built around winning. When a team goes into a tournament favourite and losses to a team that just scrapped through it has an impact on the players so winning these tournaments is also vital going into the africa cup. If your child continously fails his tests at school, realistically speaking it would take a miracle for that child to pass the final exam. Lets not downplay the results of the smaller tournaments because these are the yard sticks aganist which we can measure ourselves.
tino on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 12:20 PM
Why dont we play a friendly with Zim. They gave us a good run for our money
DaMwiinger on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 12:28 PM
Well articulated Whisper. sad thing is that FAZ sees such as yellow journalism worth of a slap. Even worse is that there are people even on here who ascribe to such. It will take a huge generation change before we can can even start realising that planning is essential-meanwhile the world is moving on.
To be honest, I am not looking forward to the afcon because of the emminent embarassment we will get both on and off the pitch.
I agree 100% with soccer fan as well. It’s only zambia in the region that doesn’t seem to see what opportunities the World cup and Africa cup being held next door brings. Rotten politicians, rotten football administrators-it’s sickening!!!!!
Zed#1 on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 2:01 PM
Sad that we are talking about preps for the african cup 3 weeks before the tournament.
How rediculors. Please twapenga…! batu ba mulimu amulutuse…!
Seen from afar on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 2:18 PM
Thank you Whisper for saying what we are all secretly thinking and knowing!!!
Mabbwana on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 2:19 PM
Good one whisper.
Yesterday, Eric Mwanza was on national TV saying FAZ is organising a friendly with the Spanish national team.
And I was thinking…. is this guy serious???
Coming to think about it, he probably meant the select side.
These guys are so not serious, and it feels so bad that we can see that they are leading us the wrong way and we cant seem to do anything about it.
Brave Rangers for life on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 2:22 PM
Awe mwe chilankalipa reading all this about FAZ, KALU and poor performance of the team and lack of preparations, what is going on bushe? We shall be passengers at AFCON unless something is done about the coach first, then the whole FAZ. The latest KALU saga is the last stroll we need from these pipo he just has to step down graciously on his own just to save face, otherwise there is no future with KALU at the helm.
Justice Kafusha on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 2:28 PM
FAZ should tell us how many friendly games they have arranged, when and where they will be played. That is what I want to hear and not anything else, that has nothing to do with football
Justice Kafusha on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 2:29 PM
Good one Whisper and keep it up
Amuna Onzuna on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 4:57 PM
BaWispher,the problem we have here is funding.I wish RB would give us the $5.9m so that we can re-build the Independence Stadium.I still believe,whether we bring in Michael Chiti,Evaristo Kasunga,Simaata or Hanif,these problems and faults you have discovered will never end UNLESS,we have a serious Government inplace which will look at Sports in Schools and infrastructure.
Justice Kafusha on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 4:57 PM
The game Vs Spain is not on the FIFA website. This means Erick Mwanza is telling ubufi nafuti. I will write the Spanish Football Association to find out whether they are playing Zambia
Positive thinking ..aka Awe on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 5:56 PM
This playing Spain thing is doubtful. I see us playing Andelusia or something, but not Spain Spain. As usual we are back at square one. We expect to go far in tournament we have not planned or prepared for. Then when it all comes crumbling down.. we will blame the coach and the players.. the admin will do some firing (this is expected) and then some minister will be on tv looking upset (pictures all up in the papers) he will be asking for a report on why we did so badly. So we will hire another coach (a local one) he will do a decent enough job, but then some company will say we have money for a coach or two, but only if you hire a foreign guy… it doesn’t matter his qualfications just make sure he is foreign and hopefully a white dude…. then we will do this dance all over again… then we will rinse and repeat.. until 2030 when I am old and hooked up to my computer directly through the brain. I will then start to blog about the good old days and reminiscing about how Kalu slapped some dude and telling my grandchildren that we were something once and how teams like Kenya and Zimbabwe were never in our league… at that time we will be ranked 300th and independence stadium would have been half way completed i.e. they would have put up a chair with a tent as the grandstand…sigh. We will also be watching the World cup via ipod pico which will be directly hooked in your eye and ear (any song you think of, it will play). Zambia will not be at that world cup ofcourse. Why do we do this to ourselves…. I guess I’m just Zambian and can’t help it.
ife ndife ba zambia on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 8:14 PM
why going to play a friendly that far?the afcon is in angola.i dont think that 1 ll b possible.play with teams that are near mozambiq, malawi, ivory coast, angola.that1 ll b another london viasco now it ll b madrid viasco
DaMwiinger on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 8:32 PM
@Positive thinking ..aka Awe
hahahaha
Sibs on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 8:41 PM
Nice article Whisper. At times one doesn’t even know what to say. Even if we suggest things to the guys at Faz we won’t be taken seriously. Katwishi mwandi !! I think i’m fed up with the way things are going with our team.
Pirlo on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 10:35 PM
The article is good but i find some flaws. In one sentence you talk about Cameroon. Later you talk of Didier Drogba. Drogba does not play for Cameroon. For all i know, it is Ivory coast who will be camping in Tanzania, not Cameroon. The story is there on BBC sports. The other point is you refer to the AFCON as taking place in 2009. No, it is in 2010.But what i have picked and very importantly is that FAZ seems to be doing strange things. If the AFCON is in Angola, why do we want to camp the team in Spain? What are we going to gain by training in Spain? We can use our neighbouring countries to give us some friendly games. Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and DRC can give us good preparation. It seems FAZ things that camping in Europe is the magic bullet. No ways!
Matafwali on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 1:44 AM
Nice article ba Whisper. About the only positive thing about our game nowadays is from reading such well articulated articles.
Muta on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 1:45 AM
I think we assume a lot and take things for granted. How are we poing to play Sapin when its not an international break, do we think that Spain will breake the rules so as just to play Zambia a team that has never qualified for the world cup?
Why do have have to camp in europe when AFCON will be held right net door in Angola. this is just as silly as comping in Spain for a game to be played in Chililabombwe. i wonder if the people at FAZ have enough brain cells. If the facilities are not that great in Zambia we can at least camp in Botswana or South africa rather than worst money and time in Spain when we know that we won’t even make past the group stages.
Asilikale on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 9:07 AM
You shud see what kansanshi mine is doing at Solwezi independence stadium,very soon it will be the best stadia in Zambia,man here u cn play or train at night…….iwe ma flood lights all over.
In solwezi we gat three better hotels that would accormodate 4 to 6 teams.
If the govnt thot fast it wud av hosted atleast teams like Ghana or Ivory coast but its kaleya mateyo.
gb on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 9:15 AM
this is bull shit! What a circus! I am greatlt grieved with awe!Lets just play the LUbumbashi select side!
Copper Bullet on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 9:32 AM
Good article,very awakening.But I wonder if FAZ are concious.
Anonymous on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 11:31 AM
@Asilikale
Sertiously. THERES A GOOD STADIUM IN SOLWEZI!!!! How come i havent heard of it. Is it that it is never advertised.
Whisper on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 1:29 PM
@Pirlo
Thanks for the comments and constructive criticism. The points you made are valid, I made a couple of mistakes.
Anonymous on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 2:40 PM
Hi Chamz, I heard you lost to Zanzibar. Say who? Zanzibar?
It is Zanzibar, for God’s sake !
And you wanted to go play in South Africa against the likes of Spain ? You are better off where you are, believe me.
Zanzibar (smile and wink).