The hopes of Zambia playing at the Cameroon Africa Cup of Nations is hanging in a balance after a 1-nil loss to Botswana. Zambia now occupies the bottom place on the log with 3 points with Botswana moving ahead of the Chipolopolo to third with 4 points.
After the match Micho said, “we’ve been a dominating team and football is not about what you dominate what you have in possession is about putting the ball in your opponent’s net, against a round of play we conceded that goal surprisingly between the three of our defenders and one been a central defender in the six yards box, unacceptable mistake that later put us from 6 minutes until 95th minutes dominate and keep a high line.”
“It is a situation that they are not allowing you, they are always having all the 10 players behind the ball. Whenever they are on the ball they play in transition they want to take a counter attack, it was not easy to play however we made all the changes we put all the attacking players in order to go all out in attack.” He said.
Zambia dominated possession through out the match but that was not converted into a goals and coach Micho who regret the unconverted chances said, “Unfortunate it was not meant to be, regretting that our domination that was through out there did not help us to get much better result from the match. We threw everything on Botswana however they succeed in their mission to deny us to score.”
Zambia can still qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations if they win the remaining game and hope that Botswana draw or lose in one of the remaining games. The Chipolopolo will now play Algeria at home, next year in March before travelling to Zimbabwe for the last match of the qualifIers.
Coach Micho. If you can hear me Zambia has a defence that cannot mark an area. They lose shape very easily and are vulnerable from wing attacks. You need to teach them area marking with 60% on the man without the ball and 40% on the ball. Zambian defenders play komboni football based on everyone following where the ball is. Watch how we conceded the second goal to Zimbabwe and you will know what I am talking about. It is a weakness that even Agrey Chiyangi and Wedson Nyirenda failed to correct.
Excellent analysis otherwise you got a good team
Coach micho all the best for the next game. Let’s work together and fight for a win team Zambia let’s push guys
Our defence has never been one to inspire confidence . A completely new back which lacks experience has been exposed and its not the coach’s fault.
Our frontline needs to think on its feet,under pressure, in highly dynamic situations.
How many of our crosses and passes fail to find the man??
When the defence packs 2 rows of 4 leaving no space then the frontline + midfield should start to work on unlocking the defence through the wings and some intelligent play in the box. It needs a bit of collective and a whole lot of individual brilliance to solve the puzzle. A lot of it is intuitive.
Why are the Nigerians and Algerians ( even Botswana , Namibia nowadays) always on top? Its in situations like this – game after game , year after year that their strikers find the back of the net.
I am sure with time they will improve, but until then its yet another Afcon “No show”.
Oh , by the way, now I’m sure we’ll see Nathan Sinkala and Cletous Chama resurrect.
( Another thing- – ditch the KoPa kit).
@GSK11. Our defence is an issue i agree with you. Why have a complete new backline?
How can a team defend for 86 minutes.nononono Micho.0-15 minutes are very critical moments .we conceded a goal in early minutes why why why?
This is side to hear a coach say Zambia dominated when we failed to kick a ball on target nothing. The coach couldn’t even change the style of play. We continued playing high balls throughout the game and we could see that it was not working. It showed how useless the coach was. He could not read the game. The whole team was the worst ever assembled. The best thing to do is to get rid of the whole team including the useless coach.
It was very imbalicing watching the team play like is their first day to kick a ball. They could see high balls was not working but continued same style. For 95minutes Zambia failed to register a shot on target nothing. Why worst the scarce resources on such a batch of fools who don’t think. Terrible team.
I totally disagree that we ditch the kopa kit. That is our identity dating back to the 1970s. It is the kit the FIFA has registered for Zambia. Every country is branded by one colour kit. Look at Brazil, Cameroon, England, Malawi , South Africa, Angola, Egypt etc ..etc. A brand like that of Coca cola or Toyota is never changed otherwise you lose identity.
It is wild dream to think of beating Zimbabwe and Algeria in their back yards. The goals scored against Botswana are the last we will never see any more goals. The team should be disbanded after the remaining qualifiers. No one should be spared.
We are playing the remaining games in March next year, starting with Algeria at home, hence coach has enough time to assess the performance of other players who were not given chance to be in the national team and let them compete for positions at national level in addition let the team u can come up with be exposed to international friendlies before we meet Algeria and Zimbabwe in conclusion both local and professional players should fight for all positions in the national team and selection should be done on merit
Let the coach change the team especially the Defence. No one is feet for the task. Wings is where the game/goals are created. Copy from premier League clubs like Liverpool, Man City, Worvs with Adama Traore. Goal keeper please we don’t want to see him. We hope for Patson Daka in March.
Ine nganalanda mutila ati wakanwa. I feel we need to learn as Zambians that we do not have a fighting spirit and that we do not believe in our own especially Black.I never saw any one condemn Micho before He even lined up Chipolopolo against another team but all the Zambian Coaches ala balatukwa before they even play a game. I feel uku kulusa ninsele mwaletuka Harve renard na Wada and our player Daka(maybe that is why Daka Less amufumishepo). Please repent and lekeni imiponto and one other thing give Micho and Kamanga a chance, we need to have patience. Mwilapulula yembe(Mangoe) iibishi ilyo tailafiluka pantu ngamwafumbika tayakapye ikafotafye. I remember in 1980s and 1990s Chipolopolo was a major force in Africa. Ala munasheko ukutipa amate yenu mwebena Zambian yalabilausha amapalo. Just bless the players and Coach if you want to see results.
Our Defense is our weakest Link. The Coaches should know better.
1. Bring back S.Sunzu to patner T.Mwape. T.Mwape for me despite that mixup is good defender but needs someone like Sunzu with experience to calm him down.
2. You need a Good Central Defensive Midfielder to protect that defence. Someone who can cut off any attacks and be Link up with the midfield and defemce. That name is NATHAN SINKALA. He is the best in Zambia at the moment if you don’t agree with me you are in denial but you entitled to your own opinion.
3. We need a guy like Mwape Musonda who can hold the ball and also has the ability to find the back of the net. Yesterday the Tswanas had big boys in defense and bullied F.Sankala who tried his best and was played as a lone striker. Let Patson Daka and M.Musonda play as twin strikers. I was surprised that Mwape Musonda was not called even with PD20 injured.
4. Let the best players come and play. No personal vendettas. K.Chongo, Triple C, Chibwe the Goal keeper from RSA should be given an opportunity.
5. If we think we can beat Zimbabwe away and Algeria at home with the team i watched the other night we are joking. Our boys lack experience because the mostly new players or players with less than 20 Caps. Zimbabwe have tough tested Warriors and the same with Algeria.
6. We know Micho is building his own team but he has to swallow his pride and bring some of the experienced players mentioned back to the the team. We started with 2 loses in a row and it was going to be a difficult hurdle for the new Coach to catch up. But losing to Botswana with all due respect to Botswana was a bitter pill to swallow.
@GSK11 SINCE WHEN HAS NIGERIA AND ALGERIA BEING NEW TO GREAT PERFORMANCE, HOW DARE YOU COMPARE THOSE TEAMS TO YOUR COSAFA TEAMS OF NAMIBIA AND BOTSWANA YOUR KIDDING RIGHT? YOU BETTER COMPARE ZAMBIA RATHER TO BOTSWANA AND NAMIBIA AS YOU ARE THE COSAFA COMPETITORS, ZAMBIA IS SUFFERING FROM INFERIORITY COMPLEX AND IS HURTING YOUR TEAM, YOU ARE NOT ON THE LEVEL OF WEST AND NORTH AFRICA THE HISTORY IS THERE TO SEE UNLESS YOUR CLEARLY IGNORANT TO THE FACT, ZAMBIA SHOULD RATHER AIM TO BE LIKE THEM RATHER THAN THINKING YOU ON THE LEVEL THAT IS WHY YOU LOOSE,
Sibs iwe you are spot on with your analysis. I agree with you 100%.
Sibs,hi.It’s Batswana not Tswanas.
Agree with Sibs.
Hit the nail on the head – very hard.
Hi @Anonymous Thanks for the correction it is indeed Batswanas.
Thanks GSK11 and @Enos Kalulu. Someone needs to sit down with Micho level with him. Let’s go down fighting with the best players available.
All is well that ends well.