Zanaco coach Numba Mumamba says his side still have work to do after being held to a 2-2 draw by DR Congo outfit AS Simba in a pre-season friendly.
Brian Kabika put Zanaco ahead in the 10th minute after Kinda Makasiya had opened the scoring for AS Simba in the first minute. Ian Sindaye restored Zanaco’s lead in the 70th minute, but Kalombo Monga struck 10 minutes later to earn the visitors a share of the spoils.
Mumamba rated Zanaco’s performance at around 65 per cent and admitted his side were guilty of conceding avoidable goals.
“We were at 65% in terms of performance today. This is a training game that has given us a good picture of where we are and where we need to work on,” Mumamba said.
“We looked better in the first 45 minutes, but we still conceded silly goals. The goals that we conceded today, we would have prevented if we were awake on the pitch.”
The Zanaco coach also used the match to assess new players, including a Ugandan forward who arrived at the club two days before the game.
Mumamba revealed the club are still searching for defensive reinforcements after failing to secure any of their initial four targets for the centre-back position.
“We are still hunting for a central defender. We are looking at getting one central defender,” he said.
Two foreign defenders have since arrived at the club, with one from Namibia and another from Nigeria set to be assessed further during Friday’s friendly against Nkwazi.
Mumamba believes the new arrivals are settling well as Zanaco look to improve on their previous league campaign.
“Our target is to make sure that we perform well. We disappointed the sponsors and the fans in the last league that ended. But this time around, we need to do better,” he said.
“We brought in a few guys to add value to the team, and the new guys are settling very well. They have shown that they have come to help us achieve things in the coming league.”
Despite being reduced to 10 men, Zanaco held on for the draw, with Mumamba taking positives from the exercise as preparations continue for the new season.
