From Orlando Stadium where Zambia lost narrowly to South Africa’s Zambianfootball.co.zm’s Billy gave an analysis from fan’s perspective.
The pairing of Kondwani Mtonga and Stopilla Sunzu at the back impressed while Rainford Kalaba was quiet and didn’t offer anything in attack.
Nathan Sinkala’s form in the qualifiers was a source of concern and it seems nothing has change.
Upfront its dejavu but one hopes either Emmanuel Mayuka or Sate Sate Kampamba will come to the party.
Below is his opinion on whether the boys from Lusaka will be a force to reckon with at the African Cup of Nations.
I watched the game from the stadium. Yes Zambia played well in the first half although we didn’t score. Emmanuel Mayuka had a chance to put Zambia ahead with a header in the first half but failed. The Southampton man just needed a slight touch on the ball.
Second half was pathetic. And I am sure this was to do with the substitutions made. I don’t want to go on and on. (1) We have no strikers – strikers like Jacob and Kola should have been included
(2) Chris Munthali, James Chamanga and Jackson Mwanza are failed to tick and don’t need to be in the squad.
Apart from the almost created goal by Chamanga, I am so disappointed that he couldn’t even run or pass the ball properly. Surely one wonders why he is there in the team.
(3) Rodrick Kabwe was suspect at left back and I doubt if he deserves a place in this team, the goal came from the left (his position). Even the offside goal that Bafana scored came from his side.
[ZamFoot Crew: Rodrick has been an understudy as a left back for 3 years now. By now, he should have challenged Emmanuel Mbola for a starting berth.
He lacks to play in that position. Also, he will only cross the ball after a stop and that’s not the way modern full backs play. A team needs width from the full backs but Zambia we don’t have that at the moment.
He play as a left winger at Zanaco but still insist he is more suited as a no.10. He has a powerful left shot that can be effective if he is coming from the right, like the way Seydou Keita played for Mali at the 2004 AFCON edition. Yes, Keita has now changed position but remember 2004]
(4) Janza’s tactics leaves much to be desired. He was just throwing in players (substitutions) with no visible tactics at all.
(5) The first team was fine, with the defence being solid especially the combination of Sunzu and Mtonga. Nkausu on the right was solid. The left back was porous.
In addition the mid was also porous. Maybe we need two central midfielders of Mtonga and Sinkala.
Mukuka Mulenga is also a liability. The boy is not fit enough. The team also lacks game changers (no depth in the team). We do not have players who can really be brought in when all “chips are down”.
Ngake, another fan who watched the match had this to say….
I was at orlando stadium and I hate to say it but I will be surprised if this team goes beyond the first round.
We were absolutely pathetic in the second half. We were average in the first half at best. My summarised analysis is as follows:
Defence – Sunzu and Kondwani are okay but any injury to any of the two and we are in serious problems.
Munthali as usual is suspect and looked weak in the second half.
Rodrick Kabwe based on this performance should never ever be played at left back. Thusa Phala destroyed him in the second half.
Bafana should have won this game 3:0 based on his wing play alone. Nkausu was exposed by Lubambo who has no idea how to track back and help out in defense. So in short out wing defenses are in dire straits.
Midfield was lacking in ideas. The combination of Sinkala and Singuluma is nowhere near the combination of Isaac Chansa and Sinkala in comparison.
Singuluma has no verve and drive from midfield. His main value is defending and popping up in the box. In Short the Chansa gap is a big hole and has not been covered.
The striking department was non-existent. i do not know what was happening up front. Mayuka looked like he was paired with Chisamba lungu and the partnership did not work. We produced nothing.
Lubambo looked lost and Kalaba was not on his game.
Some people are saying here that the performance is to confuse the enemy but we looked very much a work in progress today. Very few well worked moves in the whole 90 minutes. There was nothing to inspire anyone today.
.
Second half we were just pathetic and thats why Shakes said they were tactically a better team I believe he based his assessment wholly on second half. My very main concern is: Whats really WRONG with our striking force? Combination and permutations arent working we only have 12 days to find STRIKERS or a good combination of them…else dont send the plane back home too early from EQ.
This is what i always talk about, this is what you pay for when you choose to select small boys for an important tournament like the AFCON. Janza should be fired if we exit from the competition in the first round!
iwe janza bring back Isaac chansa and Jacob before its too late and then the team is done.I have always said that left footed player called rodrick kabwe is useless.janza is another headless chicken ,how do you leave out players who can deliver at afcon and start experimenting by making a lot of subs to see who can fit in. indeed he is a clueless coach.
we nid kola in the team to parter muyuka
JAAAAAAAANZAAAA SHOULD NOT TAKE US TO AFCON.HE’S ANOTHER HEADLESS CHICKEN
———————-> @ EGUWGWU,,U ARE A NIGERIAN AND- GUESWAAT? U COULDNT QUALIFY, SO BE QUITE, WILL U?..
Fake Kwame Nkrumah ,tell your Zambian friends to do something about their inferior quality jerseys,some have numbers,others don’t
Mtcheeeeew.
Thanks Zamfoot for that publication:
(1) We need to sort out the striking force
(2) The midfield is also a source of worry as Sinkala was outplayed alone in the midfield. Maybe Janza should partner Katebe and Sunzu in central defense and push Kondwani in the midfield (central midfielder) to assist Sinkala. We know Kondwani is an excellent distributor of the ball. Sinkala should continue in his role as defensive midfielder to shield the 2 central defenders.
(3) The left back: Mbola is back but the question is who will cover up for him in the event of an injury? Rodrick Kabwe to me left back role does not suit him. He was exposed yesterday.
(4) Again some players don’t deserve to be in this squad as they will not add any value. Another worry is if any of our dependable defenders, Mtonga and Sunzu gets injured (God forbid), I am not sure who will take up their positions. Because I don’t think Munthali has what it takes. I miss Nyambe Mulenga (quick recovery).
Is there any way these blogs and contributions get to the coach? We’re quickly running out of time…… Kondwani should be pushed up.. Janza knows our woes have been in defence mostly to the exposure of Munthali and Malama..I expected him to try out Katebe seeing as in the Sunzu, Mtonga and Nkausu partnership worked.. To my shock he put in Munthali who we know has been a liability already..kaya mwe
If this assessment if correct, then we are in serious trouble.
Last week I posted my preferred lineup where I paired katebe with sunzu and went on to say chansa is a missing link in our midfield and the only player who can pitch up in his position is kondwani mtonga. there is need to have Jacob upfront who is able to deal with those aerial balls plus his physique and experience a plus.mayuka is not mayuka we knew in 2012.
AFCON IS NOT FOR PLAYERS LIKE RODRICK ,CHAMANGA,JACKSON …HELL NOOOOOP.JANZA
Am still adamant that our team displayed good football,Chisamba Lungu was on target,he was doing the holding role properly except failing to execute our mission. Mayuka was too slow to finish the passes.(2) Janza didn’t make tactical changes has he indicated that wanted to see other players how they would fair .this is why we lost our game plane. Shakes Mashaba made tactical changes and score from super sub. Janza should stick to a wining formula. That Swazi referee killed us also playing advantage when faults were commited. Our team is fine Janza and the technical bench will look at our strikers and backline
The reports from the two bloggers who watched the game live are consistent and the bloggers have come up with almost an identical list of suspects. My only worry is that this is a bit unusual. If Chris Munthali, James Chamanga, Rodrick Kabwe, Nkausu (Vest), Lubambo Musonda, Mayuka and Chisamba Lungu all did not play well, then who played well? When you have 73% (8/11) of the players not paying well, then you have no option but to start worrying. We do not have enough time between now and the Afcon kick off and the option of including new players may not be tenable at this stage except for those who are playing in the leagues which are still active. Sometimes we should not remove a player purely based on age but current form. Joseph Musonda is a more formidable defender than Mbola, Nkausu, Rodrick Kabwe, Munthali etc and this is one player who has been sidelined just because of the age factor. We need new blood but if this new blood is not delivering, let us delay the retirement of the aged that can still deliver more than the new blood.
Musonda and Jacob are currently actively playing. So there is no issue of lack of fitness here. These can easily and quickly be included in the team though it would appear this would still not be a panacea.
As KK 11 mentioned last week, our current crop of players have no pride to play for their country. Money has replaced pride and these should surely take full responsibility for the potential embarrassment they will shortly cause the country. They think wearing a national jersey is their birthright and they can put on the national colours and start monkeying around. All those who will fail to deliver this time around, let them not get anywhere near Football House again and we will have no use for them where football is concerned. I am now changing my argument. it is not like coach Janza has left out a team of very good players somewhere-we simply do not have players to talk about. Apart from Jacob, Chris (who has been left out for assorted allegation), Kola and Fwayo, there are are no known good players (excluding the under 17 and 20). Is this the best a country of 14.3 million people can produce? What has gone wrong with our league and our football administrators? Let us go to Equatorial Guinea, get bullocked, come back and restrategise because it is very clear that our Five-year Strategic Plan is gathering more dust than working. It is even embarrassing to claim that we have a Five-year strategic plan. All of us stakeholders in Zambian football have spectacularly failed and we should not be like one monkey laughing at the length of another monkey’s tail as we have collectively failed. Those of you harbouring illusions of going beyond the preliminary stage you might be in dire need of psychiatric examination. Much as the tournament has not yet kicked off, it is unthinkable to imagine a team where almost all the eleven players are performing below per and expect it to start scoring goals.
This team should quickly be disbanded immediately it arrives at KKIA after being bundled out of the Afcon 2015. Trust me there is no team you are going to beat in that group and let alone any other group. We are simply not ready for this tournament but it should be a wake up call for Afcon 2017.
zamfoot need pepo like you, great analysts.
iam just waiting for u17 and u20, not this comedy.
Wow! Thanks for the punt Zamfoot i did not know my thoughts would make headline news.@ROK you have painted a probably more dire picture than me and Billy painted in our blogs. That aside the truth is that yes it will take a herculian task to qualify from the groups and it remains to be seen whether we are up for it. A lot lies in the motivation skills and tactical astuteness of our bench. its too late to ask for changes in the players this is the squad and we have to live with it. The hard truth is that our team does not compare in player quality to the top 8 teams at Afcon. Our first eleven is not far behind but our bench / backup or plan B players are very mediocre, almost amaturerish. Comparing Munthali to Sunzu is unthinkable. Same for Mbola and Rodrick Kabwe. Therein lies the problem. This means the players the ZPL is producing are on average way below international standards and need alot of international games to match up to Sunzu’s level. On the other hand south africa can still produce Rivaldo Coetzee who is 18 years old, has played only one season of PSL but is miles ahead of any player in the ZPL at centreback. The standard of professionalism in our top league is too low. For us to get to the group stages we need almost supernatural levels of motivation as was the case in 2012. We are not like the top teams in africa who even in second gear can win games. We need something extra because we do not have the same pools of talent to draw from. This was why Renard behaved like a demented person on the bench to psych the players up. We need an aggressive coach to lead our team. Issues regarding sponsorship marketting is a bigger debate which clever people like ROK can comment on. To conclude a Zambian friend of mine asked his south african wife before the game what was her thoughts on who was going to win. She said south africa not because she is south african but her reason were a little more considered. Which was remarkable for a person who has totally no interest in football. She said straight from the warmups she could tell the South African players looked more confident, more fitter and generally looked more professional that the Zambians. I admit we may lack on the professionalism but the fitter and more confident part struct me as something that is within our grasp to be above South Africa even with the difference in economics of the two countries. Needless to say her prediction was true and accurate for someone who watches football once or twice each decade. Over and out.
Indeed many thanks to Zamfoot.
Take a close look at your jersey
Do I see differences;one set of players have numbers in front of their jerseys whilst others don’t have.
You can’t use such a jersey in a tournament
African soccer giant indeed
Is it that some players have their jersey numbers removed due to inferior quality or those are the jerseys Zambia have
You can’t do this at the Afcon
So. Much for an African soccer giant
Let’s not lose all our hope guys, as much as we’re not at the same level with most of the teams, we’re still naturaly able to compete, so for I’m still optimistic that we can achieve something.
All this is the Coach’s making. It’s not like Zambia is talentless, to the contrary, it is the Coach’s arrogance in leaving out a group of certain players who can add value to the team,that looks as though we are short of talent. I feel the following should have made the cut: Chris Katongo, Rodgers Kola, Alex Ngonga,Felix Katongo. Players like Singuluma,Munthali, and the usual cohorts should not have made the cut.
Shakes knows Zambian football better than Janza, when Shakes was the under 20 for south Africa,south Africa used to be a tough team for the young chipolopolo. Shakes knows that Zambians get tired easily in the second half.Janza has no plans that can change the game. If you are to ask him where the weakness of the team is,he will tell you that its the goal keeping or the defense when the main weakness area of the team is the striking force. There is no connection between the midfielders and the strikers.Maybe Isaac chansa has something to offer to the team.time is moving fast.
pliz all players who ar doin wel at their respective clubs n not calin players just by name..kola should b in the squad pliz…
can someone pliz tel me;who z best player btwn kola n chamanga
Umwana shufwa aile kumako eyaya Janza na boss wakwe kalu baleya nayo ku afcon
Kola can run and keep defenders busy but chamanga can’t run and can’t shoot. It is high time he accepted that he is old.
@ Robert Mbambala, it is mbesuma who is better.
In short there is no depth in the team,players like Mukuka,Malama,Munthali,Chamanga,Kabwe should be dropped and replaced with Chris,Jacob,Kasonde,Muzo and kola.Ba team Manager please what’s up with the pathetic jersey that is why there are fooling us,some are numbered while some are not.
Only Isaac and Kola should be brought in to replace Chamanga and Mukuka Mulenga. If the couch wants to keep Chamanga as his backroom staff, fine with me, but not as one of our top strickers
FAZ and Kalusha are not serious this is a pure reflection of the technical bench. They put up this facade on these irrelevant things…. Janza is not managing the team….Kalusha is. So stop blaming him he is toothless.
All the things that are happening e.g: Kalaba captian is off… Team drive is wrong….
We need better strategies… Otherwise will embarrass ourselves.
Sometimes one would give Herve Renard credit for having the intuition to understand and pick the best out an average lot.I agree with the blogger who reminds us of the alck of quality in our league.Having watched Zambian football from 1978 to date,l am at loss to say that our league is miles behind in producing the quality that a natioal coach would easily call into a team without having to tinker alot i teaching.l watched our biggest only cup final involving Zesco and nkana,l was saddened not only by the quality but even the atmosphere.There was a time a Heroes and Unity Cup final would attract 40 thousand fans with unbelievable display of football.Some of the players we are calling National tema material would not have made it even the national school team of the 80s,90s even early 2000.They are below average to say the least.
When we told them after Afcon 2012 that the team despite winning the trophy would never be among the best ever, they cried trophy, trophy, trophy-where are we today?
Sorry about the mispelling.Busy in the office and blogging!
The team needs the services of Chris katongo,Isaac Chansa and Jacob Mulenga, for it to be balanced and solid…Age or difference of opinion with these players must not be a determing factor but performance and results…
If at this time Zambia cant put togther a final squad before midnight then forget quater final
am also waiting for under 17 and under 20 period