Sensational ZANACO FC was not so sensentional on sunday afternoon at Nkoloma Stadium as they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat at hands of visiting Zimbabwean champions Caps United. This marked the first loss in their preseason campaign,
ZANACO gave their newest acquisitions a chance to impress in this international friendly. And this definitley turned out as a good preparatory match for the Bankers and the team that is preparing for APR in the CAF Champions league. It surely will give a true picture of the team after the loss.
Zanaco has lost a good first team players that helped win the ZSL and certainly not a good sign for a team going into the gruesome African Safari.
The squad for the Sunday match was a blend of first teamers and developmental players, allowing manager Numba Mumamba to get a sense of which youngsters might be ready to stake a claim in the first team going into the first half of 2017 season.
Of greater interest in the Bankers side are two new acquisitions in Zimbabwean import and obviously not new to Zambian football Zimiseleni Moyo and former Mufulira Wanderers stalwart in Taonga Bwembya. two players who a lot of people were interested to see in Zimiseleni Moyo and Taonga Bwembya. Reports indicate the two inclusions did not disappoint at all. A good sign going forward.
Obviously a host of ZANACO fans’ who got the first chance to actually watch their team in preseason action will might have been left with a lot of mixed feelings but it will be too early to judge them based on this encounter. That’s the essence of these preseason matches of competitive nature. It gives the technical team a lot to ponder about.
ZANACO missed a penalty in the second half but Saith Sakala scored the other late on to pull one back but it was too late to salvage a loss.
The next up on the agenda for Zanaco will be against TP Mazembe who are the current CAF Confederation champions. Another good litmus test for the Bankers.
Reports from the fans that watched the friendly at Nkoloma this is what they had to say:
Shazzy: The goal keeper for ZANACO let the team down
Chishimba:Caps was a better team on the day and they deserved to win. Am afraid Zanaco is not ready for the CAF Champions league if this is what they are bringing to the competition.
And one of the die hard ZANACO supporter Roystrings Mutombo analysed his team as follows:
” Its a training match…it will help identify gray areas”
On the next friendly, Roystrings added up;
“We have to look at the other player combination of players who did not feature….the next friendly at top level is TP and it will be much more serious than this”.
We leave it humbly to mentor Numba Mumamba as he prepares his boys for the next ecounter against the DRC side TP Mazembe. We await for what is in store for our Zambian Champions….SENSATIONAL ZANACO!!!
Picture courtesy of Zanaco official Facebook page.
