‘Chipolopolo Boys capable’
Written by Millennium on July 30, 2019
MUKWIMA CHILALA writes
@SunZambian
FORMER Zambia national team coach Honor Janza believes that the current Chipolopolo squad has high caliber players to help qualify to the 2021 African Cup of Nations championships,
Janza said the current crop of players were more vibrant than successive teams that had qualified to the AfCON in the past including his squad which was the last to represent Zambia at a senior continental tournament.
He told the Sun sport that during his tenure as coach, most of the players he used came in as part of the rebuilding process which comprised mainly of young stars.
He said his time was trickier because a national team was just being rebuilt, unlike now when there were a number of well-established and energetic young players to rely on.
Janza said that having the right crop of players was crucial to prepare a formidable team to produce the right results.
“From what I see, we have even more vibrant players than the ones I used when we were qualifying because during my time most of the players I was using were in the rebuilding process, like Charles Zulu, Bruce Musakanya (Red Arrows) Spencer Sautu (Green Eagles) and Christopher Muntali,
“For me that time was even trickier and it was the time when we were trying to rebrand the team but this time we have the Enock Mwepus, Justine Shongas and the Patson Dakas, so this time we have a crop of good young players with the vibrancy to go forward,” Janza said
Janza said that qualification to the 2021 continental tournament was now a must because of the fact that Chipolopolo were regional champions which gave it an upper hand over group mates Botswana and Zimbabwe.
He said beating Algeria in the last World Cup qualifiers was another advantage for the Chipolopolo Boys in the group which also had the recently crowned continental champions.
Janza advised the technical bench to prepare adequately for the qualifiers, saying failure to make it would be suicidal.
The former FAZ technical director was the last coach to have qualified to team to the AfCON with a game to spare in the 2015 edition.
