Teenage sensation Conlyde Luchanga stole the headlines when he came off the bench to make his Chipolopolo debut to help Zambia ease past Mozambique with a 3 – 0 scoreline in the first round first leg Rwanda 2016 qualifier played at Levy Mwanawasa stadium in Ndola.
Zambia scored all the goals in the last 15 minutes with Winstone Kalengo and Spencer Sautu all finding the back of the net
Coach George Lwandamina continued to show consistency with his team selection but pulled a few surprises when he named Kennedy Mudenda, Charles Zulu and Paul Katema in the Zambia midfield despite the three being on the fringes of the national team for most part of the year.
Zambia started well pressing the visitors from the first minute as they failed to contend with Festus Mbewe who was popping up in different spaces in the attacking third with Zulu running the right flank relentlessly. Kalengo had a quiet first half.
However, it was Mozambique who were the first on target after young Benedict Chepeshi who had a torrid half was for a second time beaten clean by the Mozambican pacy wider player whose cross was well connected well for Chipolopolo captain Jacob Banda to spill the ball for what looked like a corner though the referee blew for offside.
Lwandamina could not bare the pain of seeing his budding right back Chepeshi tormented further and he pulled him out for Dauti Musekwa who stabilized the situation. On the other side of defence, Boyd Mkandawire was having a fair game and his cross was just headed wide by Mbewe at a time his colleague was walking off the pitch.
Despite Katema weighing in with a few long range shots, the Chipolopolo did little to trouble their opponents though they dominated the midfield with Jack Chirwa doing well.
Zambia upped the tempo in the second half and the introduction of Spencer Sautu for Mudenda 58′ who failed to light up the show and Luchanga for Mbewe 73′.
In-form Kalengo then put Zambia ahead in the 77th minute after he ran on to a Sautu cross to head home and take his tally in the qualifiers to three having scored both at home and away against Namibia in the preliminary rounds.
17 year old Luchanga who is joint 4th on the league top scorer chart with 8 goals, extended the lead three minutes later before Sautu brilliantly cut in from the right with a some step-overs to shoot home from outside the box in the 89th minute.
With one eye on the Senegal CAF U23 tournament, Lwandamina featured seven U23 players in the game.
The second leg of this tie will be played on October 24. The winner over two legs will qualify for the final tournament of the 2016 African Nations Championship to be hosted by Rwanda in January.
Zambia XI v Mozambique
Jacob Banda – Benedict Chepeshi, Boyd Mkandawire, Buchizya Mfune, Christopher Munthali – Paul Katema, Jack Chirwa, Charles Zulu, Kennedy Mudenda (Spencer Sautu) – Winstone Kalengo, Festus Mbewe (Conlyde Luchanga)
In the photo – Luchanga (L) with Buchizya Mfune after the game. Photo courtesy of FAZ
Luchanga on song, congrates lad we don’t have sharp strikers at the moment so take the opportunity my boy only the sky is the limit Zambia National Team calling. Go to the U23 Afcon then Chan 2016 and then senior Afcon 2017. Europe will come knocking, u have the talent just keep on banging goals, good luck God be with you my boy
Now we don’t want to see this small boy being marketed by Kalusha in big games like world cup qualifiers let’s be serious please. Let him and patson prove themselves in small competitions like chan and youth football.
good bebut for luchanga keep on working hard
not a bad perfomance overall but i think alot has to be improvd. i maintain lwandamina is not a coach. we need to start beating big teams. against gabon and egypt he failed. the day we start producing bulky players will be the day we will rank among the best. iam seen toomany midgets. even the new kid from lusaka dynamos is too skinny. the national team has become a playground for midgets
Zambia national team is like Arsenal in size, not those wrestlers of Chelsea.
Ba Stumpy imwe, where can we get the bulky players, what with the hunger in Zambia? Lets just do with what we have. Gone are the days we had mountain of men in the KK11 era. Those days people could eat four meals a day. Nomba ilelo, yalikosa tata.
Kkkkkkk Stumpy when you’re good you’re good, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve a huge body or not.
Actually stature matters in football.
I wouldnt be so sure of that! Some of the best players are diametrically opposites of each other in stature. Currently, we have the dueling of Ronaldo and Messi, very different from each other. Historically, we had Maradona(short), Pele(slim-though not tall or short, Brazilian Ronaldo-tall and big, Romario(short), Bebetto and Oscar(handsome), Savic(fearsome apprearance), Stoichkov(temperamental). Back home two of our greatest players in the 1990-Kalusha and Johnson were very different in stature. Lota and Kelvin Mutale were very different too. So dont prescribe how one can go based on there perceived physical limitations, there is nothing like that!!!!
You can afford to have a few small-size players in the team but when the majority of the squad is made up of smaller players it becomes a bit of a problem. Agreed some of the best players in the world are small in stature. What they lack in size they compensate with pace and skills due to low sense of gravity. Note that most if not all the players you’ve mentioned are strikers (attackers). It’s when you have smaller defenders and holding midfielders that you easily get bullied by bigger/stronger opponents.
Good news . It really shows that Zambia has talent in abadance . What iz needed is to polish the diamond we have to shape the future of the Zambia national team. Thanks faz for putting your house in order …
Luchanga is better than that row boy patson
The boy is good
@ Stumpy i totally agree with U on ONE chicken, even fan can do better than him, too slow to read the game & too slow to react when making decisións.ba coach sure
@stumpy spot on about midgets. I think i had talked about this sometime back. They must visit the gym regulary as part of their training not just on the fields or tracks.someone is bringing politics here! hunger?
You can’t compare the size of players in the arsenal team to the midgets in our team. We like it or not size matters at that level and I can give u examples, Sate Sate is a very good player just like Evan Kangwa but they have failed to live up to expectations of supporters mainly due to their statures. They can play well in our local league where most players are also small but not in Europe, w. Africa or N. Africa. Don’t compare to messi, he is in a class of his own! I agree with one bloger who mentioned poor diet and also gym work (lack of it) as contributing to small bodies. Compare the current team to that team that perished in body sizes!
Madam, when you are good you are good. Sata Sate is just an average player who is over-hyped by his supporters. Romario, that deadly Brazilian striker was/is only 1.67m tall, which is quite on a shorter side!!!!!!
Awe naiwe wabepa ubu bwena bufi ubwafita fititi!!! actually most the best midfielders are short (and maybe hefty) in stature.
Whatever weaknesses Chicken George has, results are beginning to show. so let’s give him 2 things, support and time.
Fredrick Kashimoto was at one time the best midfielder in Zambia with his small stature. At that time we huge Simulambos, huge mandonas,huge Makumbos, Shinde etc. Where size fails, brains must compensate.
I watched Kashimoto several times and though he was not tall he was very well built, just like Benard “Tools” Mutale, Kaiser Kalambo, Miltom Muke, Benson Swift Musonda, Mbola etc. Players those days had stamina
We re on the lader but we need players
Well done Chipolopolo
That is HUD results. The major problem we have in Zambia is team selection. Let the coach select players doing fine at league level not by name but performance. Try mulawo and junior from green eagles.
Sorry I meant good results.
luchanga use his senses but patson kaya I don’t want to sin.as for lwandamina u too slow in thinking.those two young defenders are useless to say the least,but u still want to feature them.
@justice Kafusha! I agree with you 100%. We are not just talking about height but stamina also. If a player is short he should have the stamina- remember johnstone Bwalya, Zifa Nkhoma and Maradona just to mention a few. Mordon Malitoli was a very average player but because of his built he came good and even displaced a very skilful sichikolo at right back at CAN 1994. Sichiliko failed to tick completely at that tournament on account of his small stature, but this was a star in our league that time.
I m not sure you are correct to say Sichikolo failed to tick in Tunisia. He had some very games but he too had his days off just like anyother player
What of John Soko?
So now we shud start feeding our players with nyama soya?? Then we shud put mr. Zambia and mr. Kanyama in the team.
Maybe I don’t understand the meaning of the word ” size”. I never knew it meant stamina. I don’t know what can be said of Kalaba’s ” size” by the experts?
Hahaha!!!!I totally agree, pipo are misleading themselves on size. Its more of intuition and intelligence-football intelligence for that! Forget the huge bodies or the small bodies-Chris Katongo, is quite average both in height and built, but he stuck it out with the Yaya Tores of this world. And offcause Mayuka and Kalaba, there failure in Europe could have other reasons but certainly not physical. We probably have not explored fully what styles and positions suite us in Europe. Eg, is it by accident that 7 of the 10 top strikers in top Leagues in Europe are South American?
I agree with you 100%, even the Japanese and Korean players do it.
Ba lwandamina is nt a coache
Ba Zamfoot,
Please give us Lwandamina’s profile as a coach. Am sure after that everyone will see that there is no better coach in Zambia.
My man give us the profile yourself, why ZAMFOOT?
Those two young boys will cost chicken his job and the earlier he gets rid of them the better.Laban Chishala, Michael Musonda,Easton Mulenga and even John kalusa were short in stature but what they lacked in height,they made it up in Speed.stamina,skill and good ball judgement-anyway even in his playing days Ba chicken was a suspect
If only Luchanga can prove himself against big teams ie Ghana,Nigeria and Algeria then you are reliable to shower praises upon him.Otherwise it might be a sign of either good or bad things to come but I wish the young lad all the best.
bodies hv no impact, we v had small players like john soko, eston, chikwalala
Those two small boys chipeshi $ mukandawire will take us no where.can’t lwandamina see! Conlyde the sky is the limit continue working hard my boy
Awe! Luchanga z good, we re nt jst praising anyhow, paliba skill umwaice, yes he needs to work hard for him to excell that z true so guidance z needed
Ba anita Body size matters less its fitiness and skill , watch maradona, bebeto, lizarazu frm france, babangida fr nigeria emire rm turkey and zambia players are small to average, nd best players n zambia are small or medium get those facts
Ati Maradona and the rest you have mentioned, tawamona stamina? WHO could push Maradona off the ball? Tell me
Diego Amando Maradona, the guy was a rocket
Imwe ba adebayo can you surely compare Sate Sate to maradona or bebeto you are talking about! Your boy like most Zambian players are paper weights! The two south american players you have mentioned had stamina and very skilful. Did you watch them play or you just heard about them!
Ni gym fye nga Messi, Herreira, Coshieny ulya uwa Arsenal, nakalya akamu brazilian kaba Chelsea, Charly Musonda, Mane the Senegalise, so gym fye bane to keep fit! epela
WELL DONE THE CHIPOS !! – ON THE OTHER WEST AFRICAN COUNTRY,,-
THE GHANA BLACK METEORS (-U23-) LOKAL TEAM BEAT IVORY COAST
IN THE CHAN QUALIFIER 2 GOALS TO -1.
my team: mweene, choongo, mbola, muntari/(the zimbabwe-morocco guy) nsunzu, sinkala/chirwa,singuluma/, chisamba,mbesuma/mulenga,kalengo/nkola,kalaba/lubambo..Subs: Banda,katema,sautu.
How about neymer have u seen his stature yet he z able to out play the big boys
body stature meant all that matter in footall
body stature does not necessary matter in football
Body size conbines height and weight.veeri few soccer players are gifted in both eg Yaya Toure is he the best player in the world? Messi has no hieght z the best in the world! Now Kalaba is not short guys he z sliM yet resiliant on the ball its not about size but fitness,look at RaMirez of chelsea
Ladies nd gentlemen y wasting yr energy on size zambian players like anita has put it re not paper wet u re mistaken its the type of physic they under go, zambian teams has no proper jims, eg the size of yaya ture was just falling in the small legs of sinkala, previously falling to stand small statue of mbarak wakaso of ghana. Yr facts re misplaced gentlemen. Kalaba is small but very physical moreover its not phisic but yr technical aproach which wins u a game