Blog: ‘Ki-nako’ to put an end to a losers philosophy
- Friday, January 29, 2010, 5:36
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Sparks argues that the Chipolopolo faithful should not be content with the second best tag. As a young boy he watched some of the finest names to have ever graced the beautiful game in Zambia.
by Sparks
If you asked any of my friends or acquaintances’ about me the first thing is I am addicted to football, I would like to correct that notion, I just love the game, I appreciate it and well I believe that is where my through passion lies.
The most vivid memory I have down memory lane of Zambian Football would be the 1988 Seoul Olympics where Zambia made history and thumped Italy 4-0 and believe me the Sicilians pulled out their maps trying to figure out where these unknowns hailed from, yes that was the arrival of Kalusha Bwalya on the international scene, his performance at the games for sure led to his one and only African Player of the year award, the only Zambian (from Southern Africa) player to have ever achieved such a feat.
As far as my memory serves me right, the very first league match I ever watched was at Zamsure sports complex in a match that pitted the then’ Mighty’ Mufulira Wanderers versus ‘The Tamanga boys’ Zamsure, at this stage I think I only knew of Efford Chabala I don’t remember the score but I remember a fan who they called ‘Mr. Mighty’ run around the pitch in excitement.
From then onwards I told myself this is where I want to be, in the stands screaming my lungs out even if I didn’t know who was playing, but alas as I continued to go to different stadia, Woodlands, Independence, Railways ground, Arthur Davies and soon caught on the names, the nick names are the best I tell you, Teacher (Timothy Mwitwa), Gentile (Kampambwe Mulenga), Shom Shom (Fred Mwila Jr), Milla (Nsofwa Chaswe) Malaza (Kelvin Mutale), Jagger (Mwape Miti) ,Haile (Nelson Banda) ,Bomber (Patrick Bomber),scud missile, and recently Nizakutumina (Nkana full back) all have a story behind them.
With our rich history, we are not a 'small team.'
I’m sure you are wondering what am on about. IL pose a question, is Zambia a small football nation? Are we underdogs? A big ‘No’ and yet we seem to be comfortable with that tag, we have been to the African Cup of Nations finals twice 1974 and 1994, is that a characteristic of an underdog?
Fine we haven’t been to the Quarter finals stage in 14 years and yes we played well against Nigeria and lost, let me say this job well done to the lads, I had almost forgotten how good we were and hats off to the Chipolopolo for that, however let us not lose the plot, next year people will not remember the game when Zambia out played Nigeria, they will remember that Nigeria beat Zambia and went to the semis.
I refuse to feel that we need certain people more than they need us and mostly I refuse to feel that the team is bigger than the nation, they are there for us, they represent us and are answerable to us, they should know that at the end of the day there is no them without us.
My point is that when all is said and done we have nothing to be happy about. Logic and human nature demands that we should attempt to reach higher heights than we have, our highest being the finals, how then are we content with reaching the quarters and even celebrating about it?
Chipolopolo Boys were treated to a heroes welcome
What message are we sending out? Malawi can celebrate, I stand to be corrected it was there second time to achieve that feat but surely not mighty Zambia, surely not a team that has been there and done that, except win the African Cup of Nations and go to the world cup, I believe in giving credit where its due and also believe in being truthful to all and I will not lie it is shameful that we as Zambians have adopted a losers philosophy, joy in second best where we even celebrate losing, whether you like it or not this is what we are doing, had it been the world cup and we lost in the first round believe me I would miss work to go and welcome the lads, but we have been to the finals and hence that should be the standard, a hero’s welcome to achieving the greater feat bringing that trophy home.
My two ngwee; on the back drop of this ‘celebration’ the message we will send to Zambian football is that
1. We can get rewarded for failure
2. The Players are hero’s and have done it all hence they need not strive to achieve greater heights
3. That we are a small team and hence the best we can do is outplay the so called big teams and then eventually lose.
4. That we are not good enough for the big stage.
People can call me names for this but it’s the blunt truth, one we must deal with, I refuse to think we are a small team, I refuse to be insulted for airing our views, I refuse to be made to feel less than what we are, I refuse to be made to feel as if favours are being done for us.
I refuse to feel that we need certain people more than they need us and mostly I refuse to feel that the team is bigger than the nation, they are there for us, they represent us and are answerable to us, they should know that at the end of the day there is no them without us.
Aluta continua!!!
About the Author
Zamfoot has written 1909 stories on this site.
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“Ke nako” and not ki-nako. This is setswana meaning “It is time”. Mind the spelling but prounounced with a deep “Ki”
And why are you (Sparks) using the language from a foreign country and not Zambian language. Do we have setswana or sotho in Zambia? Be proud of your language man. Why cant you use “Inshita (bemba) or Nthawi (nyanja), or Kimye (kikaonde)” etc. Always wanting to be associated with others and not being proud of our own. This is the more reason why Zambia always under achieve.
This article my dear friend is utter nonsense:
“If you know your enemy and know yourself then you will win a 100 battles
If you only know yourself and not your enemy then you will win or lose
If you know neither yourenemy nor yourself, you will always endanger yourself”
No one here doesn’t share yur memories of a great Zambia. Who here doesn’t remember beating Italy, who here doesn’t remember ‘94. Who here doesn’t remember laughing about playing Tunisia in the semi-finals of ‘96 AFCON knowing full well that Zambia were considered one of the favourites? And now here we were, a team that has never been all the way, but in 14 yrs we became a team that simply came to make up the numbers. We seemed to have the formula completely wrong. Those of us who had seen what the top of the mountain almost looked like, were now staring from a 1000ft below. Failing to climb a little hill that is the firt round of the AFRICA cup.
No we are not Malawi. Sudan is a former AFCON champion, do we consider them giants in this sport anymore? Ethiopia, DRC, and we can talk of finalists like Mali, Uganda, Libya even Morrocco…. are these teams we can call “mighty” or even power houses… does your hair stand on the back of your kneck in fear of these finalists and champions? NO!! Because they have not achieved anything in the past 10-20 yrs. Even Senegal a team that was on top of the world is no longer considereda power house.
What I am saying, is that we cannot use 1974,1994, 1996 as excuses to put expectations on our young team. People are not out there applauding failure my friend….. people are out there applauding progress!!! Yes Progress, climbing this little hill that seemed almost an impossibility not too long ago is the first step in getting to the summits and peaks of football mountains. If we do not celebrate our small victories..these little steps in this long winding journey..then how can we expect greater things. What these young men have acheived should not be taken lightly….. should we simply turn away and scoff or do we congratulate and prepare for the next mountain we need to climb. The day we stop to recognize progress, because we are so caught up in the past, is the day we will become failures. I for one will not be accused of promoting failure because I took pride in our performance…and I will continue to do so. And if I see one of those young men who wear that Zambian jersey I will not hesitate to congratulate them again..by doing so we let them know what they are playing for and for them to strive for more.
Thats my two ngwee
Ever heard of Moral Boosta Sparks, what do you want us to do ok, the guys were given a heroes welcome because they tried their best and played their lungs out against all odds, we were not proud of them when they failed to make it to the world cup, they lost twice at home did we celebrate? NO!!! coz there was no reason to do so, now they went to AFCON and were placed in a tight Group, sum how we they came out on top of it with the likes of Cameroon unless you are saying Cameroon is a small team, went to the quarter finals only to loose on penalties after outplaying Nigeria in 120 minutes surely we are not celebrating that we are out we are just telling the boys to say you did your best and better luck next tym unless you are also saying Nigeria is small team.
Now as stake holders we need to have those stadias finished as soon as possible coz we are on the 2012 and 2014 Mission, Thumbz up Chipolopolo we are on the right track whether with renard or not?
It is not a question of celebrating failure but a point of acknowlweging our recent failures and appreciating genuine efforts to put our football back on the right track to recovery.
You misunderstand me gents, im not saying im not happy that we went that far, il be honest i didnt expect us to do so, i hoped we would though, even when the chips were down i have stood by the team, i have been to every home game Zambia has played in the last couple of days and truth be told for the first time they played like they wanted to win and i am proud, Kashman i dont want to see progress, well thats your opinion and i will not question it, and i will humbly take heed of all the critisim i will get for airing my views, proudly Zambian the title given to the blogg was not mine and therefore i am not associating myself to others. My usual challenge is i bet all of you who think my thoughts are nonsense, what are you doing about changing where our football is? will you merely write and condemn or do something about it?
Nice one ba sparks…. But (and this is a big but) If Zambia was a big team, do you think the Nigerians would have been surprised that they got outplayed by Zambia? You have to look at this from a different perspective sparks, If you look at this through a Zambian lens then of course Zambia would be one of Africa’s bigs. Whether you like it or not all the odds are against us, its not just a matter of making it to the quarter finals. On a second thought making it to the quarter finals is actually a huge achievement, as we do not sit in the top 10 teams in Africa’s rankings.
Sparks I respect your views. I dont see the need for some to rate your article as atmost nonsese. Winner know that to be a winner you need not accept anything less. If we will be celebrating losing because some quaters feel its the best lose we have had in a long time.. Well, then that make them even bigger losers. Right now our players believe that its ok to be a good losers because the nation celebrates. I declare it, a dont want to be apart of a good losing side, i want to win. I pray that you dont extend this ideology to your children because it proves one thing: your average citizens and dem proud of it. We as a footballing nation can archieve more, all we need is the belief and a winning mind.
By the way Sparks is right kinako is correct, becuase its Lozi not sitwana people please get your bearings right. You can think, speak and act like above average winning minded Zambian citizens. I rest my case.
Hold your fire !! Who told you this is foreign language. This is Lozi my brother Sparks has spelt it exactly like it is in Lozi. We say Kinako in Lozi meaning it is time. Check your facts before you attack someone.
Actually Sestwana and Sotho are very similar to Lozi it’s just the pronunciation that differs in most words. This term may be used in South Africa but the Lozis equally use in a lot. Ask any pure breed Lozi they will tell you this is a common term.
Here is another piece of writting springing out of emotion. That is why he couldnt think of us celebrating progress rather than failure. And why not man-up and mention HR by name? Sparks yes we have the potential to be the best but that doesnt mean we are the best. Potential is simply defined as how far you can go that you have not yet gone. Pls try to think in all angles before you write to have a balanced article
@Awe
That is a very good post. I agree with you 100%. You have hit the nail on the head, not once but several times!
@Spaks
You are point on. We need to appreciate our lads yes but surely not as if they done what we have not achieved before. Exiting CAN with one victory and two draws is not good enough as a country. Our benchmark should be going further than we have gone before.
About $ 6,000 I think its okay, though it was earlier intended to be a wining allowance what would have been bad is to tell players that they will get it regardless of the results in the Nigerian game. football is a career it needs and palyers need to live quality lives. If Esther can get $ 10,000 for those useless belts I think our players derserved the $ 6,000.
Othwerwise I agree with your opinion and I think every true fan will never be content with a quarter final exit. There is no pride in losing in whatever game.
I also dont think this article is utter nonsense, but I really like the counter point Awe has raised.
I like Sparks’ line of reasoning. All of a sudden we have a coach that has grown wings by simply getting us to a point where we have been before. We have the talent to win the Africa cup as could be seen by the way we played and as such we should demand no less. Like every Zambian., I’m proud of how our team played but setting the bar low and settling for 8th best is not the message we should be send or even rewarding. We need to have a mentality of a winner and accept nothing less. I’m not a big fan of Chipungu but his message before the lads left was that he expected nothing less than the Cup and I wonder what happened to that message as he was out there giving these guys a hero’s welcome. We will continue under achieving as long as we continue to reward mediocrity and I do not apologize for saying that. In my humble opinion, a congratulations would have been sufficient and not a heroes welcome. So instead of attacking Sparks and his use of another language, lest be objective and see the logic in what he is saying. There’s a reason why they say be all you can be…we need to tell the team to do nothing less than be all they can be
@Sibs
Thanks for clarification. Ki nako is a lozi phrase meaning ‘its time.’ as for the article, Spaks is simply encouraging us to work hard and not to settle for second best including us the fans. 2010 could be the turning point for our soccer. the exploits of the chan squad and zesco utd plus the team’s quarter final berth has proved what many of us has believed in-theres talent in Zambia and we just need to put our heads together .
@Spaks
spaks dnt mind these guys they never appreciate and they alwz fail to pick the main point.Me i was not happy whn we lost to nigeria,zamfoot is my witness coz he deleted my coment.
I dnt watch my team expectng a lose,i watch to c my team knwng that we are capable to whack even Brazil,i dnt watch with doubts.
Up2 now am not happy to exit the tournament at the hand of Nigeria,we went in as the best n strong,i dnt rate my country a small nation just coz of mismanagement of the team whn we gat best players,it hurt me to c ppl celebrate quarter final and i dnt av a reason to gv a heros welcome i welcomed our team coz theres no place like home.
They played better n best but why lose so easily.Its a tournament men,its a tournament in knockout stages not preliminaries where u av hope to progress to the next stage by wining the nxt game,No.
Spak am impressd ,u av said exactly wht i say,2012 its a long way to come but final 2010 was just btwn days.Too bad,am still hurt.
@zamfoot
I dnt care to be deleted again.
I was celebrating,but not because we lost to nigeria but because of the progress we have made,the zambia i saw in angola is not the same zambia i saw in the qualifiers(the team that scored 2 goals in the qualifiers),the team that was in angola was far better than the team that we sent to previous afcons(2000,2002,2006,2008),that is worth celebrating about..i was not only happy for the team,but for the players progress as well,having watched the likes of jacob mulenga,stoppila sunzu and rainford kalaba rise through the ranks from the time when they were just schoolboys and playing in the lower leagues,but today they are amongst the most important members of our national team,if that is not worth celebrating about then i dont know what is..
You have to remember that there was 2 rounds of qualifications,from a total of about 50 countries,we were among the 8 that remained standing,recent winners of the afcon like tunisia and bafana bafana did not even reach this far..not only will this achievement expose our players to bigger european clubs but it will also re-ignite people’s interest in zambian football,hopefully we will see an increased number of fans coming out to watch the kcm premier league because the attendances have been quite poor in the previous years..
Thats why i was celebrating.
@Spaks
’scud missile’,thats ackson shimbala right?i still remember the way he used to control the ball with his chest
Gents, i will assume progress here is being limited to the National Team and i said it a few days ago tha t the only happiness we can draw from this is the foundation that HR (most of us singing out loud were always condemning HR and Zambia and rightly so not long ao while i stated that problems in Zambian Soccer went beyond HR). This progress we are talking about in my opinion will be qualified if:
i) We really build on this foundation and slowly start culling aging legs (Chris, Muzo, Chintu,Isaac, Mbesuma etc) not because they are no longer useful but to create sustainability to avoid lessons of Post 1999 and to some extent Post 2007 World Cup jaunts.
ii) Pay more attention to the resevior in our Leagues, Infrastructure, Player Welfare, Arrest Crooked Player Agents at all levels.
iii) Cautiously give accolades to these young which is the message SPAKS is carrying and make them realise that although we congratulate them, if it was a University Exam, they would write a SUPPLEMENTARY EXAM. Kanu after Nigeria won the Olympic over Argentina said “Nigeria were GOLD while Argentina were GOOD”. We need gold not being good. We need to lose winning a gold medal and not winning silver. We should be able to draw opportunities from problems (like what SPARKS is doing here). We need to harbour what journalists are saying including the much maligned yet brave POST. We need to tell Katongo and HR that divergent views help build the PROGRESS we are referring to.
On a light note i hope what PROUDLY ZAMBIAN is wearing is all made in Zambian seeing as in his prescription of being Zambian is doing Zambian. Hey he didn’t use a Zambian language again in communicating to this blog.
Meanwhile we met as the Nkana Think Tank (Supporters) to chart best way to assist our team. We were lucky to have the Nkana Secretary Stanley Kaseko at the meeting as it helped bridge the gap between supporters and the Executive so that we have PROGRESS(!!!). Meanwhile the General Meeting is on tomorrow at 14.30hrs at Chibolya Primary School. Incase any of you require minutes of our last meeting, do let me know your email address and i will share as TRANSPARENCY is our middle name and we take criticism even from the POST positively!!
Iwe Sibs or whaterver your name is, In Lozi its Nako ki, NOT Ki nako. I know Lozi’s are similar to the sotho. Historically, these came from the south, the makololo people led by sebitwane, who later mixed up with some tribes from the north (kongo & bangola) to form lozi. I know history mune and Zambian languages.
Anonymous i’m Lozi and whiles for you know Zambian languages these are two different things.
We only use the term nako ki when someone asks you what time is it? (Kinako mani?)
then i would answer nako ki 10 o’clock. Don’t try and lecture me on who the Lozis are cos i can tell you all the history of the Lozis. I actually have an Uncle by the name Sebitwane you talking about. Mr. Anon…. my Name is Sibuza not whatever. If you want a lecture in Lozi i can forward you my number and give you my email adresss. I hope you have the guts to tell us your name.
Nako ki means ‘the time is’ and Ki nako means ‘it’s time’. Please don’t try and change our language Anon…… .
Instead of shooting ourselves in the foot by condemning gestures meant to encourage good performanmce, we need to looka at factors that has helped Zambia perform better in this AFCON after 14 years.That way it will help us do even better next time.Lets avoid excesses such as over praising or being too citical for nothing.
Ha! ha! ha! ha! i just love this sight its never short of Comedy!!!!!!
I refuse to feel that we need certain people more than they need us – wat do you mean by this?
i totally disagree with you, we are a small team.history is history, so i lets forcus on the future.history is there to build or destroy.the future is more important than the past.
site!
zamfoot u should also aim 2b 1st in inform us than be 2nd just as sparks is eagin our national team
zamfoot u should also aim 2b 1st in inform us than be 2nd just as spaks is eagin our national team
On this one I have to agree with sparks, we have simply become way too accustomed with failure. We even celebrate mediocre achievements. Sorry gents you can shoot me down but we have achieved nothing, nada!!!! when are we going to start celebrating by kissing a trophy. Has it not been way toooo many years for us to still be celebrating a quarterfinal berth whether its been 14 years or even 20. We loose so much even a draw seems like a victory these days and we celebrate it. Sparks you are spot on, we need to change our mindset and start adopting a winning mindset and not settle for second best and still clap our hands. Its been way tooo long t say we are still building or it is a young team blah blah blah. We need to start winning things finish and kla. Too many loser justifications everyone has a justification for losing or even celebrating the fact that we did not win, why is it that we don’t have justifications for winning things always on the loser end and yet we still dance.
The nigerians were not happy with their team and yet they got to the semi’s and are in the world cup. They are not dancing to the semifinal achievement because they have a winning mentality. they want to win it and not reach certain levels but win it, kiss the trophy. In the Zed we dance to a quarterfinal berth thats just not on. Like i said in an earlier posting we will be 80 and still saying zambia is improving
We are putting things in place for regular updates as well as breaking news. Thanks
Come 2014 when people will be talking of Afcon 2010 they will be saying Ghana or Egypt won the cup not that Zambia played one of the best footbal at the tournament. Thats the truth and this what should motivate us to win. We tired of being second best. I agree with you, we failed yet again.
This article smells wishful thinking.Its myopic.
Lets stop dreaming.Lets stop living in de past.
19 dis,19 dat.This team has never bn all those places u are talking abt that KK11 went.
This is Katongo’s generation.We’re happy cos we know its a big step for dis generation.Give credit nd dont belittle our success.
All KK11 left us is a name.We got to put de boys on the pitch to play.De boys made their own history.
Lets focus on de present-on what we’ve now nd nt on those ‘fairytales’ dat wont shape our future
You are right i support you steve.
you know Sibs its just so disapointing. Afcon after Afcon it is we are a young team, lets go back to the drawing board, blah blah!!! its just so disapointing.
@Bolla Pansi
walasa.
there is nothing wrong in giving our boys a heroes welcome.that will be a motivation.next time they wont aim at 1/4 finals.if my kid has been passing number 19 in the class of 52 pupils, and all the sudden passes number 6, i ll definately make a part for him.thats achievement.
So you know that I also KNOW, Kaaa. Never mind even if you dont know my name, because giving you my name is irrelevant as you will vener see me anyway.
I can see where Spaks is coming from. There is a fine line in this one as to whether we are celebrating mediocrity or progress. I will seat on the fence.
This is the problem we have in Zambia,I think we are more critical than analytical.Instead of studying what SPAKS is talking about in this well written article we want to rubbish his views without giving any reasonable points.
SPAKS starts by giving us his football background and reading through that clearly shows that SPAKS understands our football and he has taken time to analyse and try to see the reason why this once great football nation went down to be an underdog.In short SPAKS is not talking from a vacuum.He has the understanging of what he is talking about.
SPAKS is happy that we have finally reached the quarter finals in 14 years and he is also happy for the team’s perfomance against Nigeria.Yes we have to celebrate this but the truth is that their is nothing to celebrate (I guess thats why the truth hurts).SPAKS has gone through our history and our past also tells me that once our players go into celebrations they never come back and many of them end their careers.
-In 1988 when we perfomed well at the Olympics players like Edmond Mumba,Webby Chikabala,Simon Mwansa,Peter Mwanza etc who were highly promising during that time never made any reasonable impact for the national team after the Olympics.Going into the 1990 AFCON in Algeria and 1992 AFCON in Senegal among the favourites owing to our world class perfomance at the Seoul Olympics we only managed to mint bronze and the quarter final stage respectively despite the talent that we had at that time.Petty squables prevented us from having key players like Charles Musonda,Lucky Msiska,Stone Nyirenda etc at the 1992 AFCON (we appear to have this same problem even now)
In 1993 when we lost that great team (MTSRIP) we for once got organised and we suprised the entire world with the results that we got just a few months after the crush.(This goes to show that we are capable of doing great things even at short notice if we do things in one spirit)
-In 1994 when we reached the AFCON finals we went into celebrations and when Belgium invited us for a friendly we got an embarrasing 9-0 beating. Kapambwe Mulenga even announced his retirement.Tenant Chilumba who was even rumoured to be heading to Europe was even involved in an accident and people in Kitwe even nicknamed him ”careless millinoare” because the guy was all over Kitwe without even attending trainings at Arthur Davies.promising stars like Evans Sakala and Happy Sichikolo also went under.(An example to show how forgetive we can be)
-In 1996 when we won bronze again the likes of Vincent Mutale never came back from celebrations.
-In 1999 when Andrew Sinkala captained under 20 squard went to the world cup and after celebrations today only Sinkala,Chintu,Bakala and Mulife Sitali are among a few still still playing some football.
-The recent one can be the case of Fwayo Tembo from the class of 2007.(This shows this syndrome is in us and it needs to be rooted out)
This is our history on what happens when we go into celebrations and SPAKS is saying ‘ALUTA CONTINUA’!!! this time around because he understands our past very well.This time we should cut short our celebrations and begin to put confidence in our players.This perfomance should be used as a tool to convince them that with self belief everything is possible.Some people here keep on saying that Zambia will only come back when we produce big stars in Europe, to me that is utter nonsense.If I may ask how many big stars are in the Ghanian that has reached the finals after 18 years????.Ivory Coast had all the stars in their team but did they even reach the last 4???.Nigeria had all the stars when we played then but we out played them.This goes to show that football is about team work and confidence not this HR theory of telling talented players that no for now you can only reach quarter finals because you have never reached their in 14 years when the boys had what it took to go all the way.I say so because I feel our team was even more matured than the young Ghanian team that has reached the finals.
Lets learn to understand where we have come from and analyse the reasons behind this downfall.Others blame everything on the demise of ZCCM but I don’t think so because I feel we have a lot of young stars in places like Israel and other parts of Europe and this time we even have a lot of chances to send many of our young stars abroad.I thought its logical to use this as a vehicle to recovery as we sort out our facilities.I think we have the talent we just need to build confidence in them for them to be in the right state to challenge for big things.Our target should be wining the AFCON and qualifying to the world cup.We have achieved all these targets and we should be looking forward to achieve greater things.
ALUTA CONTINUA
Please stop wasting blog space on nonsensical articles.
Should Egypt not celebrate if they win the cup again?According to some bloggers,they should NOT.The reasoning is that they have won it before.They should hold their joy for the ultimate prize.
If i score a goal I celebrate.If I score another one ‘its a losers philosophy’ to celebrate.
This is twisted kind of reasoning.Stop it.
i really fail to understand why pipo will always claim their friends thougts as nonnsense,if you differ wit what spaks says why not just counter his thoughts rather than claiming blog space is being wasted. The blog is for everyone so let people say whatever they feel
dinamo…wat is it that u want to say,are u sayin dont celebrate wen zambia does well cooz its players will go into oblivion?
When you blog you can never be 100% right otherwise there is sense in what has been written by Spaks.But to those who are not of his era will find it offensive becoz they were not there.But its right for them to celebrate this victory becoz they havent seen this feat for over a decade and we can celebrate with them but also avail history of Zambian football.We are all talking the same language but time and age is dividing us.To some extent we need to get over this celebration and focus on building on this success to win Africa cup and qualify for the world cup.
celebrating a goal and celebrating mediocrity are two different things. In the course of a game when a player scores all his team mates will celebrate with him but if the team goes on to loose 5-1 the player and his teammatee can not then walk off the pitch and begin to celebrate that at least they scored a goal. We can celebrate in the course of the tournament but if we come out of the tournament with nothing lets not continue celebrating cause then we are celebrating failure.
@Dinamo
Good reply… Gents, be careful talking about stuff we don’t like, it’s important to also say what we would like to see happen now??? So…
U don’t have to be there to learn history, thats why its called history.
Dinamo has missed the point also, his talking of players who have failed to make a mark dispite having gone to Afcon and youth world cup tournaments, i thot Sparks is talking about celebrating the teams achievement of a quater final exit and bieng given a heroes welcome!!
If there are some of you who think what Spaks has written is nonsense, why don’t you just write what you think is a better article Vis-á-vis Spaks article. Spaks spent his free time to give us something to debate on, but all some of us contribute is to rubbish his views. It is OK not to agree but we should learn to do this in a fair manner
I end up here
debate about
It’s good to celebrate for once, i think we are celebrating breaking the duct of not getting out the group more than anything else. The guys are so you used to receiving negativity that it’s good to show appreciation for once and celebrate their achievement and their real hard work just to remind ourselves that we still know how! Having said that i see Spak’s point and Dinamo’s and i agree to an extent, we must not go overboard because i believed also we were capable of allot more and there was an opportunity missed despite what HR would tell you. I don’t think the players left very much on the pitch against Nigeria, and we didn’t any lucky breaks, but there was an element of “we’re just grateful to be here mentality”… i would like see us now start to become allot more proficient in front of goal and upfront and really start to close games early, because that will count when come back to competitions.
Because Nigeria is ranked # 3 in Africa, they don’t achieve anything by making it to the semifinals. Besides they have come out with a bronze too many times in the past 14 years. On the other hand Zambia is ranked # 17 and they put themselves amongst the best 8 in Africa and you are saying that it’s nothing to be happy about. Do you people realize that Zambia has not made it past the quarter finals for 14 years? and you wonder why other countries consider us a small team. Big Steve Imagine you were not Zambian and you did not follow Zambian football, if you looked at Zambia’s history at Afcon and their current standings would you say that Zambia is a big team? I bet you’d also be surprised to see them in the quarter finals of Afcon.
Twice the British Eurosport commentators said, Zambia is team that can go all the way…
Okay guys, maybe I was too quick to judge and maybe I should have not called this article nonsense. That I take back, but I will not take back everything else I said. Sparks is entitled to his opinion and obviously many of you share it.
What we need to understand is that we Zambians seem to have selective memory. We are quick to look so far back as 1974 or 1994, but do you guys not remember not so long ago watching AFCON without Zambia in it, after losing 3-1 to Benin? Do you not remember losing to Egypt 4-0 and coming home, did we forget the bashing we got from Cameroon that pretty much sent us packing?
I don’t claim to have done much for Zambian football, I don’t claim to be sitting in ssome office where I can call coaches and club officials to do much about the game. What I am is a fan, who simply thinks that yes a heroes welcome was appropriate. Maybe I would like to think that the cup is half full rather than half empty.
There isn’t much to show for a qtr final finish; true. There isn’t anything we have acheived; FALSE. We have made progress. The players that disappeared that we talk about, it had nothing to do with being welcomed as heroes. Sinkala led U20 fell apart because those kids were never fully integrated into the enior national team… and indiscipline on the part of afew.
I appologise for calling the article nonsense. But I want you all to not only gauge yourselves based on your past successes, but also on our past failures.
Fair enough Dinamo……but if we go by what you define the truth then it works against us. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Zambia has always been a mediocre team. Even in the days of the so called “greats” we never lifted the Afcon. Our only greatest achievements are always almost winning something or almost making it. The fact that we never won the Afcon or qualified for the world does not help us in trying to convince other people that Zambia was/is a big team in Africa. Save for those that died in Gabon, lets not speculate on what they could have done if they hadn’t boarded that flight. Truth remains we never won any major tournament. In order for one to be called great they have to win something. The Uka’s, the Kalu’s never brought anything great for us to celebrity, that is why I will celebrate the only achievement known to Zambians; Almost achieving something great (in this case we almost beat Nigeria in the quarter finals of the Afcon).
“Can” is the key world in that quote. What was the reasoning behind that quote? If Zambia were a big team do you think they would have said something like that in the first place? Why not say something like Egypt is a team that can go all the way? Egypt is a team that has gone all the way on a couple of occasions, and it looks like they are about to go all the way again.
I have no problem with your response it was just this rubbishing that I thought could have put into a better tone, otherwise for me you views and those of Spaks have my blessings, it is up to the rest to comment in accordance with the way the interprate his article and your counter attack.
I respect you both for sure
Cheers to both of you
I have no problem with your response it was just this rubbishing that I thought could have been put into a better tone, otherwise for me your views and those of Spaks have my blessings, it is up to the rest to comment in accordance with the way they interprate his article and your counter attack.
I respect you both for sure
Cheers to both of you
@Gametime12
Good points you have raised and I support that. This thing of we almost, we almost, we almost, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best, we tried our best,……………………………………when will this crap come to a stop
Fine we did well, but is that the best we can?????
This article is what you call “fluff.” it is all rhetoric. Mr. Spaks is just expressing an opinion with nothing to back it. As far as I can remember Zambian has never achieved anything in football other than finish runners-up twice at the Nations Cup. They’ve never won the Cup and they’ve never qualified for the World Cup. They have been contenders that’s all, even when they had those great players of old. They have been very bad in the last 14 years and the reason why people are celebrating the Angola “success’ is really because many believe it signals Zambia’s return to contender status. It means that now whenever we play the recognized African giants, we don’t have to fear. It means that we can beat them. If Spaks had said, “well, Zambia were champions in this year and that year and we qualified for the World Cup four times and reached the quarterfinals once, we should not be happy with a quarterfinal finish in Angola,” he would have had a point. But he has no argument because second best IS THE BEST THAT WE HAVE EVER ACHIEVED. So the brother is writing much about nothing. He doesn’t even offer suggestions on the way forward. That’s what you call “fluff.”
@ Gametime, I rushed to post my comments before reading all the other posts in detail. And I agree with you entirely earlier on when you say we have never achieved anything other finish second best. That’s the point I was also trying to make. I remember that brother, Jaggari, had also written the same thing some time ago. Even with our Kalus and other great heroes, we never won the nations cup or reached the world cup. I’m sure that if you ranked all the African teams since the early 60s, Zambia would barely make top ten. Member number nine or even ten itself. We have been in the wilderness since 1996 and that’s not good.
Hello Brother,
Just to put things on record, I am gald to inform you that the National squad of 1974 that reached the finals of AFCON74 in Egypt was actually the first National football team to qualifiy for the Olympic football finals. This team travelled to Mexico in the company of boxers Late Lottie Mwale, Chisanda Muti and Charm Chiteule, however due to ba KK and ama politics, cold war, USSR, Cuba boycot KK withdrew our team, just anyother step backwards for us, next, Gabon. I think twalitipwa mwe
glad
No crime in celebrating .well done Chipolopolo. The question from now on ward is ,what is the next step from here.zambia has a lot of potential how best can it be tapped to cultivate a culture of consistency to put us among the top teams in Africa and ultimately among the best in the world.Now my friends that calls for a lot of work .Are we ready?
the thing we shud understand is that yes we were a good team but not great and now we are an average team with great potential from wat i saw so can 2010 should be used as a stepping stone, so once the nxt tournament comes up we should try and aim for the semi’s nd anything other than that we shud take it as a bonus lets take things step by step.lets not kid ourselves we are not there yet it takes time.lets keep improving..
Here is the Zambian mentality i talk about. “Passed glory is no guarantee for future success”. This is the first time we have made the quaterfinals in 14yrs. YES, YES we ought to celebrate our re-emergence back on to the soccer scene. You don’t start building a sky scrapper by first building the pent house/ sky deck. You start with the foundation. And this my fellow bloggers is the beginning of the chipolopolo menace.
We need a good stadium, that’s what “Mr Sparks” should writing on. Follow up on the Progress. Let the Zambian’s rejoice for once. We are not BRAZIL.
Ba Marty. just compliment and comlement what Sparks has written about as someone else may say “We need more than a good stadium and Marty should be comprehensive” rather than rubbish which we may also call Zambian mentality (whatever it is, if it is good i am there). Hey what about sourcing some sponsorship for a Zambian Team while you are there as Sparks may just be doing the same!!