THE 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) championship in Equatorial Guinea comes to an end this weekend and all the countries that participated in the January 17-Februay 8 football extravaganza must be congratulated for their brilliant displays.
Most soccer fans thought the Chipolopolo boys would reproduce the form that enabled Zambia to win and lift the African Cup of Nations for the first time since Independence when they defeated a star-studded Cote d’Ivoire XI in 2012.
But that was not to be because it was obvious from the opening match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that the Chipolopolo boys would struggle in their attempt to do so due to poor finishing.
The expectation was that as AFCON coincided with the holding of the January 20, 2015 presidential by-elections, Chipolopolo captain Rainford Kalaba and his boys would win the cup and give the in-coming Republican president (Edgar Lungu) a special gift as they did with the late president Michael Sata three years previously.
Conspiracy theorists would in fact posit that Zambia’s chances of success at the 2015 tournament was literally ‘undermined’ in the boardroom when the pairing of the participating teams was done by CAF at its headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Someone somewhere was aware that by pitting Zambia against their SADC neighbours and traditional arch-rivals DRC in their Group B opening match of the new campaign, on January 17, the 2012 AFCON champions would not go very far.
Going by this hypothesis the ‘plotters’ can be said to have done their homework correctly because although a number of Zambian players feature for Congolese top sides like TP Mazembe of Lubumbashi and thus know and understand how the Congolese play, history shows that since the colonial days Northern Rhodesia’s (Zambia’s) matches against the former Belgian Congo have always been tough.
Zambia was once humiliated by General Mobutu Sese Seiko’s Zaire Leopards 10-1 in Kinshasa in a controversial match, characterized by reports of ill treatment and biased refereeing. The Congolese treat every international football match like a war between two enemy countries and their allies.
They throw everything into their preparations to the extent of dispatching soccer spies to the ‘enemy’ country to gather information on strategy, style of play and dossiers on key players to look out for. Once they have received such data they then sit down to work out a set of measures to counteract and foil enemy manoeuvres.
The Congolese would even unleash prostitutes on players of the visiting teams; and the gullible often fall for the ruse with disastrous consequences. This is not to say Zambia should start doing the same but to show how seriously other countries take or treat football matters.
They do not leave anything to chance nor do they take anything for granted, as we tend to do.
This is the point former Zambia National Defence Force (ZNDF) commander, founder of Green Buffaloes Football Club and Home Affairs Minister General Kingsley Chinkuli and former Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Teddy Mulonga highlighted when we met at the burial of Dr Julius Sakala’s wife Betty in Ndola recently. Both men including former Zambian international defender and FAZ Coaches’ Association life member Moses Kabaila expressed the need for Zambia to make adequate preparations for important competitions like AFCON and the World Cup.
Although every generation produces its own heroes and super stars, we could not resist the temptation to recall the good old days when Zambia did not seem to have a shortage of deadly strikers who scored goals at crucial moments in the likes of current FAZ president and 1988 Africa Footballer of the Year Kalusha Bwalya, Godfrey ‘Ucar’ Chitalu (Kitwe United/Kabwe Warriors), Bernard ‘Bomber’ Chanda (Roan United), Willie Kunda (Mufulira Wanderers), Lonesome Katiwa (Green Buffaloes), Thomas Bwalya, Robertson Zulu (Muf Wanderers), Peter Mhango (City of Lusaka), Gibbon ‘Nigger’ Chewe (Ndola United), Moses Simwala (Rhokana United), Fred Mwila (Rhokana United), Samuel ‘Zoom’ Ndhlovu (Wanderers),  Emment Kapengwe (Kitwe United) and Patrick Phiri (Nchanga Rangers).
We even had players who were prepared to ‘die a little’ for mother Zambia like Boniface ‘Chitapochimo’ Simutowe who were so ‘inventive’ that they would ‘fool’ a referee into believing they had been fouled especially when tackled inside the penalty box.
Defenders like former Zambian national team skipper Dickson Makwaza (Muf Wanderers), Dick Chama (Bancroft Blades/Buffaloes), Edward Musonda (Wanderers/Warriors), Kabaila (Kitwe/Ndola United), Sebastian ‘Yakatabala’ Ngugu (Mufulira Blackpool/Warriors) and Richard Stephenson (Warriors) and many others formed solid defence formations that attacking forwards found impenetrable.
Many would also concur that these were lacking in West Africa this time around.
Against the DRC in Equatorial Guinea, Zambia made a false start by scoring an early goal but struggled to defend the lead thereafter. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, but the Chipolopolo were in fact very lucky not to lose by a wide margin to the former Zaire Leopards who played more methodical and systematic football throughout the 90 minutes of the game.
The rampaging Leopards, if they had been clinical in their finishing, would have mauled our indecisive boys.
As a result Zambia’s glaring weaknesses – failure to defend (the early lead and to score more goals) – were thus exposed in the opening match of the campaign. In the second match against Tunisia inability to score, despite creating so many chances, was Zambia’s principal undoing.
Inclement weather can be blamed for the lackluster performance in the third match played on a waterlogged pitch against Cape Verde on January 26. It rained so hard players from both side experienced much difficulty trying to control the ball. The match ended goalless and Zambia and the Cape Verde islanders bowed out of the competition, leaving the tenacious DR-Congo in the race.
As losing semi finalists, the Congolese, whom Zambia gave a torrid time during the 1974 Africa Cup final drawing 2-2- in Cairo (they won the second match of the final 2-0), will tomorrow play host nation, Equatorial Guinea in the third play-off while four-time winners, the Black Stars of Ghana will meet the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire in what promises to be a pulsating final in Bata on Sunday, January 8, 2015, starting at 21 hours.
The two AFCON finalists were among five African countries that featured at last year’s World Cup finals in Brazil. Others were Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria. The Super Eagles, who had travelled to South America as 2013 Africa Cup champions with coach Stephen Keshi did not qualify for the Equatorial Guinea tournament.
On paper, and given their performance at Brazil 2014 World Cup where they drew 2-2 with eventual winners West Germany, Israeli coach Avram Grant’s Ghana look set to make it five times in a row, especially if their talisman and skipper Asamoah Gyan, who was nursing an injury after colliding with Guinea goalkeeper, Naby Yattara, will return to action against the Ivorians this weekend.
But towering and articulate Yaya Tore may once again demonstrate why he has not only dominated the Africa Player of the Year Award but also why he is such a highly prized player in the world and at English Premier League defending champions, Manchester City in particular.
In the 3-1 demolition of the DRC in the semi final on Wednesday, ‘Yaya’ – a renowned midfield dynamo – led by example when  he stormed upfront and unleashed a hot shot that the Congolese goalkeeper could only wave at on its way into the back of the net. That opening goal unlocked the floodgates and left the stunned Leopards liking their wounds.
But all in all, I would put my money on the Black Stars to lift the Africa Cup which they last won way back in 1982 – a demonstration that patience and good planning have their handsome rewards.
As for Southern Africa, South Africa and Zambia in particular, it is back to the drawing board once more. Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba and Zambia’s Honour Janza face another daunting task of sharpening the skills of their charges in readiness for the next AFCON and World Cup preliminary matches.