Thursday, March 28, 2024

Olympic dream hits snag as Zambia goes down to Tunisia

The U23 national soccer team made the worst possible start in search of spot at the 2016 Rio Olympics after going down 2 – 1 to Tunisia in Dakar.

The Arabs did not allow Zambia to settle as they struck as early as the fourth minute from a corner which caught the Zambian defense off balance.

The Zambian team did not look shaken by the setback and went forward to get back in the game.

Ronald Kampamba pulled one back for the young Chipolopolo with a brilliant audacious strike from 35 yards after he spotted the Tunisian goalie off the line.

Zambia ended the first half stronger but looked out of sorts in the second half failing to to trouble the Tunisians in the final third despite keeping a lot of possession.

Substitute Friday Samu could have wrapped it up for Zambia in the dying minutes but he planted his free header at the back post off the mark.

Tunisia responded almost immediately with a counter attack which pulled the defenders off their spots and the Tunisian striker made no mistake with a header to hand the Arabs the win.

In all its a game which was there for the taking for the young Chipolopolo.

Zambia now have to avoid a loss in the next game on Tuesday against South Africa to a miss the next flight home.

Hosts Senegal beat South Africa 3 – 1 in the early kickoff to shoot to the summit of group A.

Zambia XI v Tunisia

Toaster Nsabata – Benedict Chepeshi, Boyd Mkandawire, Kapota Kayawe, Benson Sakala, Jack Chirwa, Paul Katema, Spencer Sautu – Patrick Ngoma (John Chingandu), Conlyde Luchanga (Aubrey Chirwa), Ronald Kampamba (Friday Samu)

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75 Comments

  1. Utterly disappointed…mostly by the inability of the technical bench to dictate the tempo of the game… you are 8 minutes away from a crucial draw knowing fully well that you have lost 2 of yr key players through injury…your options on the bench are limited in terms of quality and without any recognizable playmaker and sticker on the pitch you still play a fast tempo game…worse still even after you concede a goal which is eventually disallowed it doesn’t ring in your mind that you need to tell the lads to slow down the tempo of the game…shame really on our technical aspect of the game…sometimes a point us better than nothing and it all comes down to reading the game and recognizing the ability of your players at any given time…Friday samu…smh

  2. This should not come as a surprise nor should we blame coaches. How much preparation did this team even have? This is what happens when you don’t prepare adequately.

  3. honestly speaking if they cn allow a team to withdraw I wud luv Zambia to withdraw coz honestly i didn’t know if we were playing football or rugby no creativity, couldn’t even string any proper passes eish guys am Zambian bt honestly Olympics maybe 2020 nt nw n pliz find a foreign coach, coz we r jst wasting tax payers money

  4. You reap what you sow.Despite their lack of serious preparations ,I still have a flicker of hope that they’ll qualify. SA are also chasing a win so we’ll see the way that turns up, otherwise all is not lost yet.

  5. Chipesi us not yet there and the team selection sure fax you have let his down. Why leaving out Charles zulu, evans KANGWA, mbola and mukuka Mulenga? Its the coach who made us to lose here. The game against south Africa forget we will be beaten. Rubbish coach. Team selection has killed us.

  6. This Tunisian side is not even good enough. I watched the game and looked at our players. I can say some of these players are really amateurs. I don’t even know how they found themselves in the national team. Jack Chirwa is not national team material. At the end of day Tunisia was the better side and deserved to win. We have a long way to go. Let serious teams go the Olympics.

  7. Zambian team is very raw.This should open the eyes of our coaches that local players are very raw. If Zambia had all the foreign based players available We could have clobbered Tunisia. MBOLA would have stabilize the defense,Mukuka Mulenga bringing creativity in the middle and Kangwa leading the attack.This business of taking players to sell will take Zambia nowhere.why keep AUBREY ON THE BENCH WHEN luchanga was doing nothing apart from falling the whole 90 minutes?As I posted earlier lets hope plan B of LUBAMBO MUSONDA WILL RESCUE ZAMBIA.

  8. Lubambo Musonda did not play, Ronald Kampamba and Patrick Dude Ngoma forced subs. Three key players played an inactive role. Honestly speaking that team is quality short…Who picked these John Ching’andu and Friday Samu? The Tunisian’s out played us after Patrick Ngoma went out, atleast the lad was putting pressure on them. We shall regret not getting Evans Kangwa, Cletus Chota Chama, moses Phiri, Kelvin Mubanga, Julius Situmbeko and Charles Zulu.

    Otherwise not all hope is lost, we can redeem ourselves by beating South Africa…Remember Spain lost its first game at 2010 world cup en route to winning it.

    • Is Evans kangwa even under 23 you guys? I don’t think so and we all know that Mbola is much older than he claims for sure. The coach was however very foolish to leave out Charles Zulu!

  9. I agree with Frank Nonde. I saw a lot of amateurism in the Zambia U23 squad, or like Nonde said the team is raw. Thanks to SS us in the diaspora are now able to watch our local players. I can point a number of players in the U23 squad who don’t deserve to be there. If we were serious about this tournament Kangwa, Mbola and Mukuka Mulenga should have been included but as usual it will be another case of going back to the boardroom waiting for another olympics in the next four years and the cycle of failure continues.
    On another note, it now seems Zambia and South Africa not only share good historical relations, good neighbourliness, warm relations, but have also become brothers in failure in football terms.

  10. I think sometimes when we loose we bitch and moan a bit too much truth be told. When the team was first announced the general consensus was it was a good selection now after one lose we are up in arms about the selection. Mukuka Mulenga’s name is again a big feature of thread……when last did we see what he can do on the field??? We come here and say only form players should play but turn around and talk about Mukuka…lets be consistent bane otherwise we should then not condemn our extra inconsistent brother on this blog. We lost yes, and it hurts but we still have a chance of resurrection lets not throw the baby with the bath water out just yet. Lets talk strategy about approach to the SA game instead of just bitching and moaning.

    • big steve you are spot on, when are we going to know and see what other players can do if we stick to the same players on the pitch. it was a good game considering that the team lacks creativity and an extra skill. this john is a bit immature just like the players on the pitch he should be a todler

  11. Toaster Nsabata is not a good goalkeeper he lacks composure he is full mistakes……except Sautu,Sate Sate and Ngoma all players lack seif esteem to win games…..I can assure u that we are out even if we beat SA…….senegal and Tunisia are thru….we can’t win Senegal…..Friday Samu squandered the best chance we cud hv bin leading 2-1 and started defending same story at afcon Mayuka did the same we lost by same margin……inferioty complex wen playing Arabs

  12. Toaster Nsabata is not a good goalkeeper he lacks composure he is full of mistakes……except Sautu,Sate Sate and Ngoma all players lack seif esteem to win games…..I can assure u that we are out even if we beat SA…….senegal and Tunisia are thru….we can’t win Senegal at ther backyard…..Friday Samu squandered the best chance we cud hv bin leading 2-1 and started defending same story at afcon Mayuka did the same we lost by same margin……inferioty complex wen playing Arabs

  13. This year national teams overrall performance is worse we hv participated at Afcon,under 20 Africa cup and under 17 Africa cup all teams hv failed to go past the group stage…..it’s beta we don’t qualify than wasting tax payers money and our economy has also hit a snag lol.now we are seeing antha shambolic participation at Under 23 level even Chan next year expect the same performance.No proper friendly matches under 23 did not play any friendly Faz promised to camp them in Europe but anything happened no wonder….we are mere participants not competitors but we always play wel but we don’t win……same with a student who always writes exams but does not pass that’s zambia lol

  14. Some bloggers here never watched the game. Zambia played well despite the loss. tunisia was just lucky, i see Zambia thrashing rsa and senegal with that kind of play. The coach should take blame 4 removing sate sate 4 friday sam coz he removed a hatrick.

    • ZAMBIAN FOOTBALL ADMINISTRATORS ARE SELFISH AND CORRUPT WHO PRETENDS TO HAVE NO HISTORY.EARLY 1990s when Chitalu and his colleage MHSRP took over the coaching job they not discard kalu,eston,wisdom, chabala ,melu, mwitwa only to mention afew bt they brought in younger players k mutale,chikwalakwala,watyakeni etc this habit selling raw players will nt improv the game.indirect human trafficking,the small raw players Faz is busy looking 4market are not even given game time where they are sold,big soccer show piece like this one are not market places

  15. The Coach has failed to perform at club level,come on Zambians,do you expect him to perform well with the National Team?
    The players were not well selected.The Zambian league has better players than those playing in Dakah Senegal.Is Cletus Chama over aged?
    To me,the defence was ok but the midfield failed to perform.If we had a good ball distributer,Tunisia would have lost the game.
    Preparations are also important.The Coach did not prepare his team well.No friendlies for the team and you expect to win games.
    Our midfielders were careless and didn’t know what to do with the ball.The defenders were put under pressure because the balls kept on swinging back.Change of the coach is important but certainly not a foreign coach.Let’s use our own and not friends of Kalusha.

  16. Taxi payers money is not an issue on this football no wonder there is proper preparetion.Tel me a father who has stopped suporting his child because he has failed grade 7 exam.How much money do politicians use during general plus bye election do see the results you want?Lets talk football only.

  17. Remove the rotten nut(KALU) from the Faz set up and u wud hv solved the puzzle of poor selection. Why is the coach continuing with these tiny defenders like Chepeshi? Don’t tell me that Chicken is oblivious to this handicap! Of course the poor chap is a victim of the master puppeteer Kalu; to keep his job he has to basically toe the line otherwise he would be shown the door.

  18. I think we are being too harsh on the boys. In my opinion, the boys played better than how the main national soccer team has been playing. The boys played something that resembled traditional Zambian football which is a passing game. I was very impressed with the speed with which the team was building up play and how they were deliberately attempting to find each other with passes even in tight positions. The main Chipolopolo team is extremely disjointed in its play and looks lethargic with the build up being very slow. The main chipolopolo often passes the ball from side to side, but this young team made efforts to make forward passes. The Tunisians are obviously more gifted technically, they looked more comfortable in possession and are obviously better coached than our team because they maintained tactical discipline and shape, but I believe Fighton Simukonda is on the right track in so far as the type of football we should be playing is concerned. I would rather watch this young side than the ugly Chipolopolo whic is grinding out results without playing football.

  19. @ The Gaffer Tax payers is an issue to me I don’t need yr opinion Iam not invoiving politics despite I don’t align myseif to any political party but participation full of failures therz no excuse for failure Bro.Yr Son fails Grade 7 ten times can u still pay school fees? We last qualified to olympics 1988 no wonder Faz should stand on ther feet and stop seeking govt sponsorship.I don’t condone failure this year all tournaments we hv been ther to participant and been kicked out in first round……….let politicians tok politics….Faz need to improve on preparations and team selection u saw how Charles Zulu played in chan qualifiers the left him out and took Chingandu why?

  20. Mukuka Mulenga is playing in the reserves and during friendlies. We are not just mentioning his name in vain. We are not stupid, we know what we are talking about. The whole U23 team is crap. If you see anything good in this team, then you have something wrong with your brain.

  21. Mukuka was suppose to be part of this team despite playing in the reserves. The coach has proved to whole nation that he has philosophy , system and he not technically good .. The is ngoma exposed him. The boy was not in his plans but after people complained the boy was handed the first eleven jersy.. He iz confused.. Learn to pick players on merit.. If a player is good call him not to wait for fans.. You are to be blamed for this loss. You are good example of an idiot. Everyone knows that you are being bribed by agents and managers to pick certain players..

  22. I truly do not see Zambia exiting easily here. Senegal and South Africa are good teams but Zambia looked even better than the two. Losing to both is possible however the other possibilities are there. Zambians must wait to see how their team will fare. The bottom line is that the best must go through.

  23. I agree with some people here, how can surely chepeshi have a position in our senior team,lwandamina should be be ashamed of himself yesterday the boy was useless together with mkandawire who could not cross the ball each time he ran forward the tunisians could eassily shield him away from the ball.
    the friday samu guy also is pathetic he closed his ayes when heading that ball ,really look at the quality of headers jouin netted in .
    overall only luchanga was better ,if it was not for sate sate injury something good would have come up.kalusha should learn to select coaches based on merit not on who i know.I can strongly say this coach should have been fired when we lost at home to nigeria after dominating the entire game, same applies to yesterday’s game we had an upper hand in the last 30 minutes but our players are useless when playing with arabs no wonder herve renard used to kick and push these dwarfs .

  24. I cannot believe the comments that I’m seeing here some even saying zambia played well. I told you that you cannot take chipeshi and mkandawire to the national team. Zambia is constantly beaten by the likes of Tunisia and other Arab nations. These boys will be mince meat in the world cup qualifiers again. Zambia beats Sudan and you celebrate like f00ls when some of us are telling you that chipeshi and mkandawire are useless you insult us. Kalu is busy marketing these quacks.

  25. Kikiki Zambia fans and analysts make laugh.. Patrick Ngoma ati dependable player? Your captain Toasted bread is a useless goal keeper! Are you even sure you will come out of this weak group with a point?
    Preparation for the tournament was horrible just kicking and troting at heroes stadium with no friendlies olofye na malawi awe… FAZ is taka-taka and taka-taka is Kalu! Ifyabupuba!

  26. The boys looked cold, no rythm chi coach ziiii chiletonkola fye if you will not change FAZ forgey ever qualifying to Russia 2018.
    2012 was a fluke.

  27. The goalkeeper is totally useless,why follow that cross from the Tunisian winger until he goes out off the goal post?theTunisian striker headed in in empty goal post without the goalkeeper. This Toaster goalkeeper, should not be used on Tuesday with south Africa. Other wise we will comeout a point.Tunisia is over aged players &Senegal

  28. Zambia cannot beat the following Arab teams Morocco, tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. We will be mince meat if we meet these guys in the group stages of Russia 2018 with the likes of chipeshi and mkwandawire.

  29. Zambias team is good, we were dominat in the play we just must make sure we dont lose all our energy and focus chasing goals!!!

    Zambia must push and keep good tempo like they did but must also keep control of the ball holding it for a breather and to exercise control of the game before pushing again.

    In the final 20 minutes we were on the attack going punch for punch and wining, however we punched ourselves out.

    Refocus Zambia, every game will be different. Refocus and get ready.

  30. Ladies and Gentlemen on our zamfoot website I can safely say zambia is out of under 23 LOL…same story failure to go past group stage at senior,under20 and under 17

  31. Selection was bad players were left out, trials but we hv a gud team. Afta ngoma went out things changed he was taking them on the tec bench costed the injury of kampamba he is the only goal gater we hv, if they took mbola, charles zulu, mukuka mulenga , evance kangwa etc it would ve been different

  32. The issue of fwayo tembo, chisamba, mbola , kola and Jacob should be addressed with immediate effect. The omission of these player from national team is highly questionable..

  33. You people lets be honest and patriotic here.Our boys played well in the first half of the game.Second half was pathetic to our boy.They were chasing the shadows and second,we missed some of the opportunies on goal.The introduction of Friday samu was a disaster some how because no pressure was exerted on the Arabs as a result,it was them who came forcefully on us.Looking at Senagal,we are likely to loose but as a supporter,we will always support.We will compose ourselves and have faith things may happen to be on our favour who knows?Bless you gentlemen in Christ Jesus’ name.Bye

  34. I was in Mpongwe but the mood in this rural town was quit. I could tell Zambia had hit a snag.Some told me it was 1 -1 ,but hearing now we lost I blame the coaches team selection.why leave experienced players and take amatuers.Can kalu himself compare this team to ’88s team.why leave kangwa and mbola.sate could have missed kangwa even if i have not watched the highlights.But hope the players forge a team spirit to win the remaining games. Otherwise this experiment will backfire!!!!

  35. Zambians lets be realistic we want to win even wen the team is weak beta players were left out hope lwandamina is watching chipeshi nd mukandawire these two re craps

  36. When i told people here before the match that the small boys will be eaten alive by Tunisia, i was told off and insulted. I have been vindicated again just like always!

  37. When i told people here before the match that the small boys will be eaten alive by Tunisia, i was told off and insulted. I have been vindicated again just like always!

  38. People i read and study football, the small boys are not just good enough. This is one of the worst under 23 teams that we have ever assembled in more than 50 years!

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