By Kalata News,
LUSAKA, 27/01/24 – An uninspiring Zambian National Team was among the first round knocked-out teams at the ongoing 23rd Edition of the Africa Cup (Afcon) being held in Ivory Coast.
The Zambian team, known as the Chipolopolo, was out played, out classed and forced to absorb attack after attack in all the three matches it played against Congo DR, Tanzania and Morocco.
Coached by an Israeli Avram Grant, the Chipolopolo showed poor match statistics against their opponents in most areas including attacks, strikes at goal and ball possessions.
In the first game against DRC, Zambia had 3 goal attempts at goal with one shot on target against DRC’s amazing 25 goal attempts, 6 shots on target while the DRC goal keeper had zero threats at goal. DRC had 86 dangerous attacks towards goal with Zambia’s 25.
Surprisingly the game ended 1 all draw.
In the second game against Tanzania, one would say the red card that Zambia got when a second yellow card was given to Chipolopolo’s captain Roderick Kabwe in the first half might have rattled Zambia’s nerves, however for Zambia it was poor performance once again. In this game the Tanzanian goal keeper only had one shot that he had to save and had pretty much the whole 90 minutes to watch the Zambian goal keeper sweat out between sticks.
Tanzania recorded 55% ball possession, had more attempts at goal and was a superior team against the 2012 Afcon Champions Chipolopolo.
Zambia fortunately managed to salvage a point again in a game that ended 1 all via a late Patson Daka header in the 86th minute that resulted in a goal.
With two points in their bag, Zambia met Morocco in their do or die final match that they needed a draw for them to be considered as best losers or win for them to qualify into knockout stages as second best.
Just like in the first two games, it was apparent in the first 10 minutes that Zambia was no match for this Moroccan side that had been to the world cup and competed at that higher FIFA competition.
Zambia had 42% ball possession against Morocco’s 58%. In the other areas, Zambia seemed to have improved with more attempts at goal with 11 shots (2 on target) compared to Morocco’s 19 attempts with 7 shots on target. This was partly thanks to Morocco that decided to dig deeper in their own half and defend their one goal.
The game ended 1 nil in favour of Morocco.
The results of these games meant that Zambia under Avram Grant did not make the cut at the 23rd edition of the Afcon and was therefore sent back to their proverbial drawing board to begin their paces once again.
A Zambia that the Israeli coach presented before the Afcon adjudicators was a team that allowed the other teams to play any game they wanted. It was easy for the ball to be passed on from the opposition side right up to Zambia’s 18 yard without a Zambian player touching the ball. The Zambia players seemed to think that the defense line manned by Stoppila Sunzu and Frankie Musonda were the only ones mandated to tackle the other side, win the ball and pass on to the rest of the team that were ball watching.
The striking force led by Patson Daka was very weak as shown by the poor striking stats. Patson Daka produced a below par in all the games he played save for the one critical goal against Tanzania in the dying minutes and a clever assist against DRC that resulted in the only shot at goal and only goal of the game.
It is clear that Zambia might need to find a new coach and new sets of strikers.
