FAZ Provincial Division One Southside, RiverPlate FC has confirmed the sacking of head Christopher ‘Gazza’ Tembo and has brought in former Nkwazi and Nakambala FC coach Albert Mpande as his replacement.
Mphande was unveiled this morning the ZamFoot Crew can exclusively reveal. Mpande will be assisted by Makundika Sakala and Tonny Mukwasa.
River Plate has recorded inconsistent performance in the recent past where winning games is concerned which saw them go top of the table and lose it in a short space following their 2-1 and 2-0 defeats to Play It Forward and Maamba Energy Stars respectively.
Speaking after the introduction to the players, Mpande thanked the River plate FC Executive. Mphande is confident that the team will go back on top of the table and eventually win promotion to the National League.
“First and foremost I would like to thank the River Plate FC Executive for giving me this opportunity of working together with the team. My coming here is just simple and straightforward. I know from the word of the club president is to see the team play National League next season. So, my job is to ensure that the team performs well so that the team wins promotion to the National League. Yes everyone may say that am coming in with experience having coached in the Super League and Rwanda and that is what the executive of River Plate wanted, well I acknowledge that but am not here to change everything today, but I know that with the grace of the Almighty God we will fight until the team wins promotion as we work together as a team,” He said.
He further expressed satisfaction with the players in the team that can work together with him to win promotion especially that they are young lads.
“Am very glad that the team River Plate consists of young players which are good and I like working with young players with the talent I have seen in them during training, I am confident that we can do it. We cannot underrate these other teams that are in the league for they are also there to compete. Our focus is just to win our games.”
And team vice-captain Daniel Obo said that the players have welcomed the coach and are ready to work with him.
“As a team We welcome the coach nicely, he is part of us now and we will work with him and we will adapt to his tactics as we work on winning promotion. Our work starts this weekend. It’s a different mentality now our motive is to win the rest of the games, that’s what the coach has brought. It’s a work of the rest of us the players to work together and make improvement so that we win promotion and our work starts this weekend.” Obo said.
River Plate is now sitting in sixth position with 35 points, 6 behind leaders Sinazongwe United, and Mphande has been given the target of qualifying the team to the National League.
