Blog: Beware of compleceny thumbnail Cometh the hour, cometh the man. That man to be coming out from the tunnels come Saturday, predictably in the ladies’ favourite white shirt will be Herve Renard. A man many a Zambian have come to respect for his brutal honesty. In a book I read a long time ago titled AN ENEMY CALLED AVERAGE, it speaks almost the exact things that this monsieur Renard spoke about when he first took the job as Zambia’s gaffer. Things that have come to affect especially us as Southern Africans. The lack of mental strength, the inability to finish off the enemy. Being ‘Africans’ we were used to somebody who treated us with kid’s gloves because when we were told the hard truth, we interpreted it as being disrespectful. But alas, here came a man who told us what we did not at like to hear. Fast forward to today, Zambia has since won the Afcon for the very first time in history and made it look like it could easily become a habit. Our players seem to have the equal belief of the class of 94 and that prior to them. The solidarity and discipline exhibited is if incomparable. And surely, anyone who dares to call the great Chipolopolo of today an average team risks the wrath of its ever loyal fans. The fans that have always known the potential of Zambian football from kampombwa to the pinnacle of it. When we deservedly won the Afcon 2012. Two things happened, one was that the notable anti Kalu and Renard critics came out and conceded defeat. One such Simaata Simaata went as far as retiring from all football activities, boys separated from men. And the second, quite bitterly is that the Chipolopolo themselves thought that it was mission accomplished and went to sleep. It is the latter that is more scaring and my purpose of writing this blog. The Chipolopolo just recorded an emphatic result against Lesotho, a result that leaves us in good stead of qualifying to the knock out stages of the qualifications. A win for Zambia on Saturday means Ghana cannot afford a thread size of a mistake the following day. lest we forget, they will be playing in that high ac caustic venue which has the much dreaded artificial turf. The cold weather of the mountainous kingdom might not be a place where the Ghanians would want to be on Sunday. Despite an objective point that most of their players ply their trades in an as cold Europe. Zambia technical bench But of our own mental strength, are we going to fall on the trap that Sudan are coming to fulfil a fixture? Or are we going to note that this indeed is the battle of grudges and we should go for a kill? How does Renard and his technical team tap into that psychological part of Saturday’s game? As the fans, do we qualify to cry for a professional psychologist to be tusked with this. Or do we rely on our very own assets such as the boss himself Great Kalu to have a strong word with the boys? Perhaps as the old adage goes, there is only one way to find out. The game that we won against Lesotho could never be anything close to lifting the Afcon 2012. But the mere fact that we had to wait so long to record such a victory called for high celebrations which in turn could invite another fall into complacence. A déjà vu of post Afcon 2012 would be disastrous. As a 12th man, we will sing, we will blow vuvuzelas and we’ll refrain from throwing missiles into the pitch. And better yet, the boys will do their job conscious of what is at stake. The road to our debut world cup has never been this clearer since the Diramba ordeal in Morrocco 1993. Yes, we believe. About auther; Jimmy Tembo is restaurant/takeaway developer and consultant. Lover of business talks and books. Learner of golf. #1 supporter of City yamoto, Zambia and Arsenal. Born in Zambia, made in South Africa. Twitter; JimmyJTembo.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:13:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015