Another assessment of Sven on the Chipolopolo
Gabon Vs Zambia
Tuesday, 11th September 2018.
Zambia gets into an international friendly with Gabon this Tuesday hoping to fine tune the team ahead of a crucial home encounter against Guinea in the 2019 AFCON qualifier. The two teams have the same situation in their respective groups with one draw, one loss and are yet to win a game and stamp their authority in group C and K respectively.
Gabon are third behind leaders Mali on 6 points and Burundi are on 4 points in Group C. In Group K, Zambia are bottom after only picking a point against Namibia and a loss at home to Mozambique.
This will be a good game for Zambian Coach Sven Vandenbroek to know his players after watching his first outing with the Chipolopolo against Namibia, which has left mixed feelings among soccer fans about the head coach.
Remember the question Sven was asked by a journalist on his first briefing as Zambia Head Coach if he thought he was best coach for Zambia.
Zambians are looking forward to see if he was, especially that everyone will remember the response to that question.
On a random survey, according to the observation of many soccer followers, pundits and fans, it’s clear that a lot were not impressed with his first assignment against Namibia. It’s this reason that this friendly becomes very important for Sven. He needs to impress and show his worth. This is not just a friendly but a tone of direction of what Sven has in store for Chipolopolo.
HEAD TO HEAD
it’s Gabon, a team Zambia has played 8 times, winning 4, drawing 2 and losing the other 2.
The first known encounter for Zambia against Gabon was in 1989 for the 1990 AFCON qualifiers on16 Jul 1989 and Zambia beat Gabon 3-0. The two teams would then meet in the second leg in July that year and Gabon beat Zambia 2-1 in Gabon.
But the last two games between the two teams have produced two draws of 0-0 in 2015 and 1-1 in 2017 and Sven will be hoping for a fifth victory of Zambia against Gabon.
Both of these teams need to impress their countries and pressure should be mounting for both coaches but for Sven, if he didn’t know how passionate Zambians are about their football, the last three days should have given him an indication.
It’s not child play…. it’s Chipolopolo and the tone will increase in whichever direction and whichever result that comes from Gabon.
Welcome to Zambia Sven Vandenbroek
