Ba Zambia, ta lelo yawina chipolopolo!!!
Senegal 1 - 2 Zambia.
Not too confident as some of our chances though. Lot of fuss has been made in the media over the 93 Gabon air disaster, but that squad was light years ahead of this one. Anyway, who knows? Competition has been stiff in Africa lately, witt all the ' small' nations taking large strides in the recent past. Anything can happen.
Thing is, even though Dario Bonetti qualified us to the CAF finals, he was sacked with the former coach, Renard, a physical trainer for Ghana not too long ago, as his replacement. I'm not taking anything away from him, cause naturally he improved physical aspect of a Zambian side that was used to being bullied off the pitch. Now, we are a much stronger team, but I still feel the quality is lacking.
I know Bonetti from his time at Dinamo Bucaresti, and I thought he deserved to lead the team into these finals. No surprise his departure had a lot to do with politics, with the ruling party for the past 20 years being displaced only last year.
So while South Africa keep their coach, who made a phenomenal error + made an utter ass of himself while doing so (ordering his keeper to fake injuries to pass time, defending deep with little to no attacking threat, jumping on the sidelines throughout the match, running to the pitch and celebrating with the players after the final whistle, cockly answering back to the reporters claiming that he had no idea of what was happening in the other game + laughing thereafter - sorry guys, couldn't resist
), we have fired the coach he led us to the finals as group leaders, with only one defeat in Libya.
I've always talked about African nations needing better administration before they are to achieve something spectacular on the world stage, and this has to start with a long term plan involving a good.coach with a vision to develop football in a country. May cost a lot more, but the benefits will be worth it.
Nevertheless, I can't wish ill on Renard, and I hope he has a spectacular tournament improving on the last edition's quarter finalist achievement. Ivory Coast are the clear favorites, alongside Ghana and Mali, but Zambia could certainly be labeled as a dark horse.
Go Chipolopolo!