Sweet revenge for Zambia

The Zambia national soccer team’s victory over South Africa in the Nelson Mandela Challenge has lifted the spirit of many soccer fans who were getting disgruntled over the team’s failure to win away matches.

That was Zambia’s first away win from the time they lifted their inaugural Cup of Nations in Libreville, Gabon early this year. They lost the match to Sudan 2-0 during the 2014 World Cup qualifier match in Khartoum, only for FIFA to hand Zambia three points when it was discovered that our opponents had fielded an ineligible player. That ruling has since been contested by Sudan. Another away match was a 1-0 loss to resurgent Uganda in Kampala in the two-legged 2013 African Nations Qualifier match. Zambia went on to win that match on penalties.    

Interestingly, the win recorded by the Chipolopolo in the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup played at Soccer City in Johannesburg was the fifth victory in 15 official matches played between the two sides. That gives Zambia a slight edge over South Africa who have four wins and six draws. 

The South African Football Association had requested Zambia to assemble a strong team in that match and the Chipolopolo coach, Herve Renard responded by fielding 10 players from the 11 who started in the Nations Cup final against Ivory Coast in February this year. The team responded by beating Bafana Bafana side 1-0 in their own home turf. Although the match is usually played in a friendly atmosphere, it is an important competition that every team that takes part craves to win. And last night, it was Zambia’s chance to lift the cup which was inaugurated in 1994, soon after South Africa got its independence. The competition was held in celebration of the historic achievement and it was called the Nelson Mandela Inauguration Challenge Cup.

Coming to the match itself, it was a fair display by the African Champions on that difficult pitch which was rushed to host the match after it was used for a musical show during the previous weekend. South Africa, who will host the 2013 African Nations Cup tournament started brightly but missed a number of chances in the early stages of the match.

Zambia settled very well and dictated play in the dying minutes of the first half and could have gone 1-0 up threw a Jacob Mulenga free kick but his shot went wide. Jacob was making his return to the team after missing the Africa Cup due to an injury that side-lined him for almost a year. He wasn’t at his best but he showed a few glimpses of what we have been missing in our team. Power Dynamos’ Mukuka Mulenga was very outstanding when he was introduced in the second half, so was Collins Mbesuma, whose performance had gone down in recent months. He scored a rocket goal and would have won a penalty when he was brought down in the 18 yard area by Bongani Khumalo. His other shot was stopped by Itumuleng Khune. Defender Stophila Nsunzu deserved his man of the match prize in that match. His performance was brilliant!

Zambia took part in the first game of the Mandela Challenge in 1994 and lost 2-1, so last night’s victory was sweet revenge for the African Champions who will soon defend the title they won this year.