Zambia U17 in New Caledonia test ahead of World Cup outing 

The Zambia U17 National team will be back in action this afternoon as they take on New Caledonia in their second international friendly match of the Dubai pre tournament camp. 

The same will be the team’s final test match ahead of the World Cup and after a win over Mexico they will be looking to continue where they left off on Monday. 

Dennis Makinka and his technical bench are now focusing on fine tuning the starting line up. 

Makinka and the team during Tuesday’s training session focused on the movement of the ball in transition from defense to attack and the overall defensive shape. 

“After this session we are still trying to work on our defensive organization and also ball movement. Yesterday’s friendly against Mexico I thought we didn’t move the ball as quickly as we wanted so today we were just doing a few corrections especially focusing on the movement of the ball in transition from defense to attack and also just the defensive shape when we lose the ball transitioning to defense,” he said. 

“We’ll see, but no, because we are trying to make a team now. We are working on the starting line-up, so if it means changes, maybe after some minutes. Depending on how the whole squad will work out, because yesterday we had a few knocks and we were looking at them, so depending on how, if there will be fully fit by tomorrow, then we might change or not.”

Makinka says he is excited with what he is seeing from the players but believes there is still room for improvement. 

“Yeah, I think I’m excited about the whole team. The improvement is massive from the time that we played a few friendlies back home in Zambia. I think the team has improved and we still have big room to improve, I think, as even the tournament progresses, I’m sure. We are going  to see many good things, especially positives from all the players. I’m excited about everyone because the things that we were emphasizing on, the things that I was worried about, they are all doing them right now,” he said. 

The technical bench says it will not underrate the French territory comprising dozens of islands in the South Pacific but do their best in the game. 

“As we meet in New Caledonia, it’s difficult anyway. We’ll see, as you see. Ah, never, never. That’s the biggest mistake that you can make. You know, football, whether you play women or you play small kids, it’s still football, same rules and same goal, everything is the same. So, no underrating but we just focus on what we want to see about the team,” he said. 

The friendly match against New Caledonia will be played  at 18:00 hours local time (16:00 hours Zambian time) at the Police Sports and Shooting Club Stadium.

Zambia have been drawn in Group H alongside Brazil, Honduras, and Indonesia. 

The Junior Chipolopolo will open their World Cup campaign against Indonesia on November 4, face Honduras three days later, and conclude the group stage with a tough clash against Brazil on November 10.