Zambia National Football Coach, says “Chipolopolo’s performance at the Afcon will tell how prepared they are to defend the trophy”.
Since the warm-up began, Zambia hasn’t made a win and has put most of their fans and natives to fear that they might not make a win for the Trophy come this tournament.
Chipolopolo lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia before losing 1-nil to Tanzania and 2-0 to Angola.
Renard insists his charges will put away their recent poor form in friendly matches and attempt to conquer Africa again.
“A lot of pundits do not believe we can win the title again and do not want to take risks with their predictions. It is easier to say Zambia will never win the Cup of Nations again,” Renard said. “If we fail to retain the trophy, it simply means another team was better than us. However, it will be very difficult to beat this Zambian team.”
However, due to speculations made about the defending Champions a friendly which was to come up on Friday has been scheduled for 15th January, 2013. According to the Namibian Football Association (NFA) president John Muinjo, FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya said Chipolopolo had a strenuous schedule, hence the cancellation of the match.
“They (Zambia) are citing a strenuous scheduling as the reason for the cancellation of the 15 January 2013 friendly in Nelspruit,” Muinjo said. “Kalusha has indicated this to me. Their coach wants the final week before the Nations Cup to be used as a winding down period.”
Separately, FAZ head of competitions Julio Chiluba also confirmed the cancellation of the game.
“The friendly match between Zambia and Namibia has been cancelled but I don’t know the details,” Chiluba said in an interview.
Read also:
http://en.africatopsports.com/2013/01/06/afcon-2013-zambia-targeting-top-spot/