The list of the eight teams that remain standing the CAF Champions league was completed on Wednesday evening with Zambian champions Zesco United remaining as the only Southern African team standing.
South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns which is the other southern African team that was in contention was dumped out of the competition by Congolese side AS Vita on away goals after a 2 – 2 aggregate draw.
North African teams have dominated the group stage taking four places; Wydad Casablanca, Al Ahly,Zamalek and ES Setif are the Arab teams in the fina 8.
West Africa has taken two slots going to ASEC Abidjan and Enyimba while Central and Southern Africa have one team each in AS Vita and Zesco United respectively.
Mamelodi Sundowns, TP Mazembe, Young Africans, Al-Ahli Tripoli, Etoile du Sahel, Stade Malien, MO Bejaia and Al-Merreikh are the teams that have dropped into the CAF Confederations Cup.
Good for Zambian football. Lwandamina should balance up the team so that more Zambians can be marketed and gain international exposure.
I see Zesco havin 2 or 3 arab teams in its group. Its a tough call these teams ‘freak out’ Zed teams. All the best anyway.
Zesco has not qualified by fluke. Am sure they will be in this competition for some serious business. Am glad the likes of Clatous Chama will have more top level game time and develop further. Coach Chicken will also be tested further against these Arabs. Its time to shine and fly the Zambian flag higher.
I am glad that Zesco will now be tested by these good clubs especially Arab teams.
What test! ba kalamba, ZESCO deserve it and they made it, you guys that are new to local soccer, will question every Zedian progress. We are good, ask these so called Arabs, which team makes the grow jelly legs.the well tell you Chipolopolo.
Swallow the so called commentators!
When did you start watching football? We know Zesco and it’s their second qualification to the group stage. Those other teams in the last eight have a pedigree in this competition. Hence this will be a good test for Zesco. Obviously we want Zesco to do well as Zambians.
Some of the teams from Maghreb area are well funded and have good players from West Africa who play for them. ZESCO will have play at their highest level and with a lot of “Heart” to beat these chaps.
Lwandamina will be exposed technically and tactically. Otherwise he has done well with the boys so far. All things are possible though.
Good Luck ZEGA!!
Off topic: FORMER Tottenham Hotspur youth coach Michael Loftman says Zambian players need to improve tactically if they are to attract interest from English Premiership clubs.
Loftman is in the country for a series of coaching clinics with academies.
The UEFA A Licensed coach said in an interview in Kitwe that it is unfortunate that Emmanuel Mayuka and Collins Mbesuma failed to excel in the Premiership.
Mbesuma signed for the then Premier League side Portsmouth under Harry Redknapp in 2005 while Mayuka failed to excel
How I wish Mweene could leave those guys and find a team even here in Zambia to give him the necessary game time. He could even go back to a struggling team like Golden Arrows so that he plays all their games and saves them from going down under. That goal he conceded in Congo was something he could have easily dealt with those days when he always had 100% game time at his club.
As for SA teams let them talk, ifwe pa Zambia we shall support our own, I am a Walya Walya, but as regards CCL, I am a Zambian so, Go ZESCO, there are no personal to holder positions or Cups in football. This is ZESCO’s time now.
That is why personally I am very disappointed to see a blogger demeaning the money CEC has put into Power because in the UK that is Blaah, blaah blaah. Few baenda nokwikala more than 10 years mumangalande (Europe and America) we don’t talk and can never demean our own because we know what it means to be patriotic. Nomba abashamona ne ndeke mukati let alone cross the Mediterranean Sea, nga balanda kwati ebene ba bulaya.
Let’s be patriotic for a change.
only a fool ii underate zesco all teams at this level are good. Zesco has a strength to take on any team on the continent. They re too professional than the team that reached semi finals last time keep on insulting lwandamina but he has matured tecnically authuogh its quetionable bz his tactics re defence minded
I can say for once that Lwandamina has a heart for supperior Zedian mind. FOR Him to beat those west African, in stade Malien, who had supperior individual skills huge body mass, bigger stacture and very good on the ball.
Let those that were educated in the school of critizing anything Zambia and cannot by analytical enough to look at the pro & con of an issue and then reason from cause to effects.
As to when I started to watch Zedian soccer, It was when KK11 was playing against Tunisia, Morroco, watching from gate D, it was Liman against our own yellowman, Eston Mulenga, tell what happened to the arabian dangerman, tell me about Kabungo ngoyi from Zaire.
Watching from Gate D, gate lupili breaking my leg in the process, by the way I was a chaisa Compound.
OFF TOPIC:
CHIPOLOPOLO coach George Lwandamina has clarified that he has not yet called a team to represent Zambia at this year’s COSAFA Castle Cup tournament and so the door is not closed. According to the team list released on Wednesday by team manager Stanley Kaseko that was posted on the FAZ Facebook page, Lwandamina had called 22 players that excluded players like Christopher Katongo and Isaac Chansa and several in-form players at several local clubs. But Lwandamina yesterday clarified that he only called players that took part in the CHAN tournament in Rwanda to assess where they were in terms of fitness and form. “I have not called the COSAFA team, I don’t know who wrote that, I have not excluded anyone. The door is not closed. When time comes for me to announce the COSAFA team, we will announce the team including those players who are doing well or performing for their clubs, they will be called,” Lwandamina said. He said he wanted to have a look at all the players that participated in the CHAN tournament in Rwanda before announcing the final COSAFA team, which will only be done ‘some weeks’ before the tournament. “That’s the reason we call a certain number of players to camp first, and if you have seen, majority of those players on that list were at the CHAN, so we want to asses them, the door is open to all players. I have not dropped anyone or closed the door, I want to clarify that,” said Lwandamina. Meanwhile, Lwandamina says Zesco United is going into the CAF Champions League group stage as underdogs. With the CAF Champions League group stage fully decided, Zesco is the only team among the eight that has never won the title before with Egyptian side Al Ahly being the most capped team with eight titles followed by Zamalek with five titles. Enyimba of Nigeria has won the competition twice, with the other four teams having a title apiece. In an interview, Lwandamina said no team was a threat to Zesco in the competition. “It’s a good challenge to go as underdogs, even them (the other seven teams) were underdogs at some point, they also attempted to win just like we are and eventually won it,” said Lwandamina. “They are just teams like Zesco and they will not pose a threat to us.” And club general secretary Justin Mumba told players to beat the 2009 CAF Champions League record where they finished third in the group. “Those teams that have won the title first had to qualify before winning…we are going through a phase that they too went through before winning. We will work within our own record; to beat our record of 2009 where we finished third,” Mumba said. Mumba said possible opponents looked strong on paper but Zesco were equal to the task as the team had players hungry for glory. “On paper, the teams look stronger but they are beatable, we have players that are fighting the hunger for glory and a coach who is experienced. It is not history that will count; if we rely on history then we won’t move,” said Mumba. ES Setif (Algeria), Zamalek, (Egypt), AS Vita (DR Congo), Wydad (Morocco), Enyimba (Nigeria), Al Ahly (Egypt), ASEC Mimosas (Cote d’Ivoire) and Zesco are the teams that qualified to the group stage. The draws for the group stage would be conducted on May 24. The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four. Each group is played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group will advance to the semifinals.
NDINAWE SIMPELWE and ADRIAN MWANZA –
CHIPOLOPOLO coach George Lwandamina has distanced himself from the COSAFA Cup team list released by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ).
Lwandamina said in an interview yesterday that the list of the team he named and forwarded to FAZ was not for the COSAFA tournament but for the routine one-week assessment camp meant to check the progress of players.
He also wondered why some players had been removed from the list he drafted.
Lwandamina said the technical bench had not yet come up with a list of the team for the COSAFA Cup and would only do so after checking a good number of players from the local ‘assessment’ camp.
“That list is not for the COSAFA Cup. I called the team which went to Rwanda (for the CHAN tournament) for assessment. It has been routine for a long time.
“Then if there will be any inclusions or subtractions, that will come later. So players should continue working extra hard,” said Lwandamina.
He said the communication from FAZ on the one-week assessment camp was not correct because selection of players for the COSAFA Cup and also the Africa Cup qualifier against Guinea Bissau in June will only be done after assessing the local players.
Chipolopolo team manager Stanley Kaseko on Tuesday released a 22-man team to start preparing for the June COSAFA Cup.
The list released by Kaseko saw veterans Isaac Chansa and Christopher Katongo as well Christopher Munthali and Mwape Mwelwa missing from the team despite being part of the CHAN tournament.
“And there are players who have been removed from the list, I don’t know who removed them.
“The players should just continue working harder, the assessment process is a continuous one and we haven’t selected a team for any match yet,” Lwandamina said.
And FAZ president Andrew Kamanga has described the death of former Chipolopolo team manager Solly Pandor as a big blow to the football fraternity in the country.
Speaking at Pandor’s funeral on Wednesday evening, Kamanga said Pandor was a dedicated servant of the game and a manager whose service had left an indelible mark on Zambian football.
“We are profoundly saddened by the death of Pandor because the success and management of the national team we see today is partly because of the foundations laid by this dedicated son of the game,” Kamanga said.
Pandor died in the early hours of Wednesday and was buried the same day at the Leopards Hill cemetery after prayers at the Burma Road Mosque.
And Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) board member Haroon Ghumra, who knew Pandor for more than 30 years, said the late former team manager was instrumental in the improvement of football in the country.
“We worked together for over 20 years when we were board members at LICEF School and he was instrumental in the improvement of sports at the school,” he said.
iam proud of zesco
ZESCO is qualifying to the semi final this time regardless of thoz big names u fear.GO ZESCO my Team GO
I wich all the beat to zesco united
waltz. baisa. Sega mambo