The Zambia U23 national team has been drawn with Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia for the CAF U23 Championship to be played in Senegal.
According to the draws conducted on Monday morning in Cairo, Egypt, the Fighton Simukonda drilled Olympic team will be in group A and will have a spread of North, West and Southern African opponents
Group B has Egypt, Algeria, Mali and Nigeria.
Zambia eliminated Ivory Coast in the final round of the qualifiers for the tournament.
The top three teams will represent Africa at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and the fourth placed team facing an Asian side in a playoff.
Final Groups:
Group A
Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Tunisia
Group B
Egypt, Algeria,Mali, Nigeria
We have a chance to go through in dis group. I pridict zambia senagal to go through though south africa are a good team.
RSA will b a difficuklt team to beat of all these 3,but we can still go through though it will b hard…they have a young 18 year old playing for Lille and another for Gremio in Brazil,with Lebo Phiri who is 20 and a first team regular for CK’s former team Brondby….I also heared that psl will go on recess so dat the coach can get his best possible team..hope FAZ can do same too
so ati Patson Daka?
What happened to Ghana? I can’t see them there.
ati i cant see ghana there. lol. the other groups tough. with proper preps and enuf time to camp zambia can qualify to brazil. also as long as team selection is not done by kalu
#viva hh 2016
Faz shod prepare three freindlies. two with Arabs team becoz of the problems they give us and one with a west African country to gauge our team.
Ghana failed to qualify. booted out by Congo who themselves got booted out by Nigeria
OK Thanks for the info.
ZAMBIA is the next to be booted out from the group. Can’t survive the group.
When was the last time ZAMBIA went to the Olympics, any info on that, Paradox?
That’s not important. He was responding to my question which I asked. Why are you hurting?
Bloggers let’s be honest; the team Simukonda is working with r the underdogs in group A! Factually I don’t see us going thru from such a pairing! Unless and only if KALU gets his willy dillying hands off the selection process. Simukonda and fans must b given free reign in picking players to the U23 team. Otherwise it will b another lost cause such as the U17 and U20 debacle!
I don’t think a team that eliminated Ivory Coast can be underdogs. Let’s not underrate ourselves with self defeating attitudes. We can match and better the best.
@ Kasama Boy…you absolutely right let’s not have a defeatist attitude! In the same vein let’s not wallow in our owm misery! The fact that our selection is haphazard is enough ground for pessimism. Week in and week out in our league boys are performing wonderfully. Someone elects to ignore such lads as Conlyde, Situmbeko,Lubambo, Walter Bwalya, Chilufya, Saith Sakala etc! Our opponents give confidence to their professionals and call them for assessment whenever chance allows. For Zambia its the opposite! GVT will spend tax payers monies in camping and allowances on someones favourite players who r no better than the above ie Patson Daka! Though I feel guilty mentioning this boy who has been so abused by Kalu and his minions The bottom line is we have the talent to march any team on the African continent but the team selectors r controlled by some big fish. We must remedy this situation sooner than letter.
Senegal will be very hard to beat. South Africa is South Africa and Tunesia will have something in the locker.
Solid training plans, solid preperation and travel plans. We also need intelligence on the opposition. Zambia is not expected to leave the group so we will have to work for it.
I like the kind of analysis that always precedes the group stage games in the context of African football. It challenges the bloggers to share their knowledge of the African game.
Well with me every side in Zambia’s group is strong including Zambia herself.Paramount to success are factors of success that each team will employ from the day they qualified until that time the when the fat lady sings.
Jst prepare the team adequetly and avoid mentioning names here.all teams in this group are good.what has patson daka done here?
Problem we have in Zambian football is that we are quick to turn on our fans who say we are underdogs and we keep saying lets think positively, so with that said I will go a direction I have always believed in.
This tournament means nothing if the team is not adequately prepared. Preparation, preparation, and more preparation. FAZ needs to give priority to the U23. Early camping, friendlies, get them to Senegal at least 2 weeks before kickoff.
This team together with some of the faces in the senior national team will be the back bone of the 2018 and 2022 world cup squad.
No easy group,but Senegal will be a heavy load as they’re the home side. We need to start preps asap . Are the plans to camp the team in Europe still in perspective??
Don, camping the team in Europe does nothing for the team. The average temperatures in Europe in November which will be when the tournament starts are between 8 and 12 degrees Celsius while the weather in Dakar Senegal (where the team will more than likely play since they are with the hosts) will be between 23 and 28 degrees Celsius. Unless Zambia intends on going to Europe to play a friendly I suggest camping in a coastal town in West Africa and not trying to do expensive camping in Europe which does not even allow real clamatization.
Ghana will be watching on the bench. Hahahaha the super-talented team! Let’s go get them boys. Leave no stone turned in preparations. I suggest we camp in North Africa or West Africa.
y are u so much obsessed with the name Ghana,where in the article did it mention Ghana yet some of u VILLAGE CHAMPIONS here happy Ghana is absent.Its so refreshing when some sensible guys here propose for the need to prepare well so as to make meaning impact yet some VILLAGE CHAMPIONS will muddy the clear waters about unnecessary innuendos.
For the records,Ghana was the first to win an Olympic medal in football for mother Africa;Nigeria and Cameroon followed suit to make Africa proud.I believe u were still plucking fruits from the trees on the dark side of civilization when these achievements for Africa’s recognition was been etched or u think football started post AFCON 2012? Ghana and others have done their part and if they are absent today,the mantle falls on u not only to add up to the numbers but make a meaningful impact for mother Africa. @ hastag VILLAGE CHAMPION.
Sorry….leave no stone unturned…lol
@ Positive Thinking…I hear u , but sometimes it can do wonders. Remember 1994 AFCON wen we reached the AFCON Finals in Tunisia after setting up camp in Denmark . That was remarkable considering the fact that it out B side after losing 97 % of our first team .
Don. That camp was about building a team and playing friendlies against clubs in Denmark, we also got issued a coach in Poulsen. Besides, that camp occurred before qualifications not before the tournament. So the timing and prep were totally different.
zambians are not under dogs. on paper they are most strongest team.the coach can assemble a star studded team . the team have national team players. faz should make an effort of negotiating with clubs of foreign based players to be released in time.
I disagree, when was the last time Zambia went to the olympics. Zambia has no modern form in the Olympics, check the other teams….
It does not matter which players Zambia thinks they have, bottom line is we have no form when it comes qualifying. So that is the basis under which Zambia should opperate.
Mwasosa mudala. There are people on this site who refuse to see that there is a lot of work to be done before we can call ourselves “powerhouses” or “favourites”
Even at the player level (a little off topic but this has to be said), Mayuka scores one goal in Ligue 2 atti he is better than the Ayew brothers also based on Mayuka being golden boot winner. The Ayew boys are junior world cup winners, they have also had a short history of destroying defenses in Ligue 1 at one of the top clubs in Europe i.e. Marseilles and we are here talking about Mayuka being better…really??!!!!
Then at the team level, atti Zambia is the best in the Group or Zambia is a powerhouse. C’mon man! We won 1 AFCON that is slowly becoming history. We have not won an AFCON match since that tournament and we haven’t been to the Olympics since 1988. Let us be realistic about our chances and let not cater to our bias, but look at the challenges with clear eyes.
Zambia is not a powerhouse and if you think Zambia is going to have a cake walk against Senegal, a team that qualified for the last Olympics and is playing at home, or South Africa, a team that has historically given us problems, or Tunisia then you will have a rude awakening.
BUT if we face this challenge with the idea that we have work to do, and we have to be prepared physically, mentally, tactically, then the sky is the limit. Confidence should be born from preparation, not history or sentiment.
Zambia will top this group with 6 points but we are likely to loosee to south africa
HHAAHAH ZAMBIA WILL NOT MAKE THIS GROUP MARK MY WORDS, TUNISIA WILL HAVE YOU FOR BREAKFAST AND SENEGAL WILL HAVE YOU FOR DINNER IN THIER HOME GROUND..YOUR CHANCE FOR A POINT IS SOUTH AFRICA BUT THEY HAVE A GOOD RECORD AGAINST ZAMBIA AND ARE YOUR TRUE RIVALS.
Fine. It’s allowed to hurt. Just continue hurting. You may not like Zambia but records are there to be broken. Every team that has qualified has an equal chance to win the cup, including Zambia. So don’t count Zambia out. Your opinion, however is respected.
Zambia vs Tunisia 28 Nov
vs S A. 01 Dec
vs Sen 04 Dec
The only team to come out from the group stage should be best on the day. We have seen good teams like Ghana, Ivory coast Kissing bye, bye .football game, its always hard to predict who wins at his level.
This group is tough really..SA’s pace and skill,senegal’s strength and power,Tunisia wit very good coaches who assess teams very well and players’ ability to stick to da game plan for 90 minutes
we wil qualify from our group. we just need good preperation.
we also need to include evans kangwa, lubambo musonda to sharpen up our striking force.
Kalu was talking about preparations What is latest
The only team I see pausing a threat in our group is Senegal. They have are good and have improved of late. In addition, they have home ground advantage. Tunisia and South Africa are our match. South Africa in particular we can beat them. Tunisia are not as strong as many people think.
FAZ what is the plan for preparation November is not far Its a month in between
kwesi nyantekyi ghanas FA is destroying our youth football
Truth be told, we have mount Everest ahead of us. When was the last time we won a game against Tunisia? South African will fall like it or not and Senegal is at home which will be hard to crack their defense. Good preparation is very much needed, like what other bloggers have articulated. All the best to all teams and may the best teams represent Africa. The probability Zambia to be among the best between 0 and 1 is half. Chipolopolo all the way.
Have we ever been to the Olympics, if so when?
Both these Groups are tough. In our Group Senegal at home will be strong and comfortable. The other spot has to be decided between Zambia,Tunisia and South Africa. Too tight to call in both Groups.
We need to have L.Musonda, C.Lungu and E.Kangwa available. I hope FAZ has already spoken to their European clubs.
has any african country ever won the Olympics beside Nigeria?