Chipolopolo captain Rainford Kalaba was voted the official man of the match in the game against Tunisia after he put up a spirited performance as Zambia battled for maximum points only to be beaten by a late Yassine Chikhaoui goal.
Kalaba received a rating of 8.63 in the game and could have found himself on target but ended up only providing the assist for Zambia’s only goal in the game which ended 2 – 1.
The talented play maker seemed to thrive in a much freer role handed to him in the game on Thursday as he popped up in different areas of the attacking third seemingly tormenting the Arabs at will.
Below are the full statistics he scored:
Rating 8.63
Assists 1
Shots 5
Key Passes 5
Dribbles 4
Tackles 2
Best player by far. This guy needed to be in Europe.
Congrats ba Mumpa u deserved it
Sometimes I even ask myself why Kalaba is not playing in of the teams in good European leagues.
This guy is a talent! A real genius and how I wish he is in the Ghanaian setup, we ll easily carve up and open up any defence including Italy and germany and easily smashed them!!
Kalaba is the only missing link in the Ghanaian setup and should Ghana get a creative player like that, we ll be the MASTERS OF ALL WE SAVOUR!
What a talent!
Thank you this is a very nice thong u have said. I believe zambia can beat cape Verde. We have to have faith.
Beating Cape Verde we can. Zambia has always struggled with North African opposition. My only worry is the match between Congo DR vs Tunisia. DRC will do everything to beat Tunisia. But a draw between these two countries will be just fine as long we beta CV. Again it’s back to mathematics. Awee mwee.
..we beat CV…
you r yet to produce another stephen appiah. that player was super.
Just imagine kalaba switched between essien or muntari! Awesome!!
Or kalaba switched between essien, annan and sulley muntari! This ll be a force in motion with creative!!
Or kalaba switched between essien, kpb and muntari!! Just pic
Or kalaba switched between rabiu Mohammed, Emmanuel agyemany badu in the center of the field, Dede on the right and atsu!
All that we need is kalaba in that central playmaker role or the advance playermaker role and Ghana ll easily win the WC!!
This guy is too good to be playing in Africa, he’s Epl material, the only problem is that he doesn’t realize it. He’s better than the Carzola, and Lallanas of this world .
The kind of football Kalaba plays will best be appreciated in the La liga. EPL is too violent. Look at Mayuka and many other Zambians who’ve failed to play there.
Or even Germany, Holland, Switzerland Kalaba can play there.
Guys let’s keep calm and beat cape Verde. Let’s go all out in that game. Cape Verde is not impossible to beat we can do it.
On Talking Football(Zambia) FB online it says Kalaba threw the arm band in anger, how true is this? FAZ better talk to the captain he put up a very good performance and he must not give up so early we are still in the race, its not over until we draw the last blood. Quitters never win fight on like a soldier!!!
I also saw him do that when leaving the pitch. More like in frustration than anger.
He should try not to be selfish
Zambia hav a good time they just need 2 chenge mbola is not good.
Brave Nchanga Rangers Yes Rainford threw the captain’s arm band as he was leaving the pitch and understandably so. Kalaba played his lungs out and in this particular game, he was tried to simplify the art of scoring to its lowest fraction. He had to do a lot of leg work to make it easier for the others to score and his defense-splitting runs and passes were inch-perfect. I could have easily tapped in the pass that sent Mayuka to hospital. An experienced player like Mayuka surely could have done better than unnecessarily stretching himself to the point of injuring himself.
For the people blaming the coach, please get your hand s off the coach because you do not know what you are talking about. Fine he could have made a mistake (the only people who do not make mistakes are those who do nothing)here and there in the past but yesterday he upped his game. The real issue is that we failed to tack away our chances but the positive side is that we created scoring opportunities as and when we needed them. We should also not forget that we had accurately shot at goal (Mayuka’s header and Kalaba’s scotcher which was parried away by the Tunisian goalkeeper) but the goalkeeper had to do his job.
As I had hinted in my earlier posting, the boys seamlessly played an almost flawless game. We passed the ball well and went for them fearlessly. However, we still have serious lapses at the back and lack of concentration when we are in the lead. This has happened a number of times even under HR, e.g. against Sudan. Yesterday’s game is over and we need to energise for the Cabo Verde game and the boys are slowly but surely gaining the level of confidence they need to beat Cabo Verde. We should not look at the Congo DR vs Tunisia as that is not our game but concentrate on our game. Our task now is to beat the islanders at all costs and the team should quickly put itself together, forget about last night’s game and beat the islanders.
Wisdom as ever!
You deserve it big man ba mupa the the engine,the teacher,supplier.
Gyaaaaaaaan