By SANDRA MWILA –
CHIPOLOPOLO coach Wedson Nyirenda has reassured Zambians of qualification to the 2018 Russia World Cup despite the rocky start to the qualifiers.
And Nyirenda revealed that he has concluded talks with Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) and finalising of his contract was being done by Government who are the ones in charge of paying national team coaches.
The Chipolopolo trainer said the prime objective was to build a team but with the intention of qualifying to the World Cup.
Speaking on ZNBC Sunday interview, Nyirenda said the Chipolopolo still have possible 12 points to grab out of the remaining qualifiers.
He said looking at how the team played in their last game against Cameroon they can beat Algeria home and away.
“Our prime objective is to build with intentions of qualifying to Russia 2018,we should admit that our game has been at the lowest point before I came in ,we need a lot of changes to bring it back to the highest level it has always been.
“We shall qualify, we can get 12 or 10 points from the remaining games. We don’t know what can happen to other teams. “Look at Algeria they are a big team in Africa but they are trailing behind us, we can beat them home and away,” Nyirenda said.
Nyirenda said in the process of making changes in the team he will not overhaul the team as that will be dangerous.
He said changes will be made but he will build on players that he found because players have different things to offer.
“We shall work on building a Zambia Chipolopolo philosophy, when you look at the junior teams it should be a reflection of the senior team,” Nyirenda said.
He added that Zambians have a tendency of not supporting a local coach but expatriates.
“We don’t have confidence in our own, when a Zambian is at the helm we don’t support. For an expatriate you give even what they have not asked for but when a Zambian asks for 10 balls they are not given,” he said.