‘Victory Against Mambas a Must’, Says Bonetti

27 May 2011

ZAMBIA coach Dario Bonetti has said victory over Mozambique in next weekend’s 2012 Gabon/Equatorial Guinea Africa Cup Group C qualifying match slated for Chingola’s Nchanga Stadium will give the Chipolopolo 99.9 per cent guarantee of sealing qualification to the 28th Africa Cup finals slated for January.

And the Zambia soccer team’s training programme yesterday morning clashed with owners of the stadium, Power Dynamos at Arthur Davies Stadium in Kitwe.

The team failed to train in the morning’s schedule for the second successive time because the arena was being used by owners of the pitch, Power who were found going through routine training preparing for this weekend’s fixture against Nakambala in Kitwe.

FAZ communications manager Erick Mwanza said in an interview yesterday the team’s training programme was the discretion of coach Bonetti who was not reachable on his mobile phone by press time.

Mwanza said all South Africa based players apart from SuperSport United defender Davies Nkausu and Orlando Pirates midfielder Isaac Chansa, who is scheduled to play in the Nedbank Cup final tomorrow, had joined camp. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based players were said to have left DRC for Zambia.

Mwanza reiterated that the full training programme would start on Monday when all the foreign based players summoned for the Mambas encounter are expected to report for camp.

The Bonetti-coached team which set camp at Kitwe’s Moba Hotel on Tuesday with only five players skipper Chris Katongo, Francis Kasonde, Allan Mukuka, Dennis Banda and Thomas Nyirenda, was expected to have a late afternoon training session at Arthur Davies.

Katongo, Kasonde, Mukuka, Banda and Nyirenda were on Wednesday afternoon found training under the tutelage Bonetti, physical trainer Ruggiero Umberto, goalkeeper coach Bozzini Claudio and former Zesco United trainer, Honour Jaanza, outside Arthur Davies.

And Mwanza named the South Africa-based players who have joined camp as goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene (Free State Stars), defenders Chintu Kampamba (BIDVest Wits), Joseph Musonda (Golden Arrows), midfielder Clifford Mulenga (Bloemfontein Celtic) and striker Collins Mbesuma (Golden Arrows).

The players expected from DRC’s TP Mazembe are goalkeeper Kalililo Kakonje, defenders Emmanuel Mbola, Hichani Himoonde, Stopilla Sunzu and striker Given Singuluma, who is battling for a late fitness test. And Bonetti was quoted on the FAZ website as saying from Moba Hotel that victory over Mozambique will give the Chipolopolo 99.9 per cent guarantee of sealing qualification to the 28th Africa Cup finals slated for January.

“Our camp is underway and we’re looking forward to the game. Between now and Saturday, we have enough time to prepare and prepare very well for us to play well and get the result we want. We will see the physical conditioning of the players as they arrive at the team hotel and then decide what schedules to take them through as we follow our training programme.

With a win against Mozambique, we will be 99.9 percent in the finals. So the challenge we have is to ensure that we are at our best and do the job on the day,” Bonetti said. The Italian trainer said fans should expect a tough clash warning that basing the outcome of the June 4 game on the result of the game in Mozambique would be wrong.

He called on the fans to rally with the team an support them from start to finish. “We won’t be going into this game thinking that we have already won. It will be a tough match because Mozambique is competitive. We know they will come to fight to stay in the competition. But we will be ready.

Our challenge is to motivate the players not to underrate them and play with 100 per cent commitment or in fact 200 per cent commitment as Kalusha (FAZ president) would always encourage us to do.

The fans should be patient with the team and give support from start to finish because we’re determined to do the best for the country. We want to win something big for Zambia,” Bonetti said.

Meanwhile, the Under-23 preparing for next week’s London 2012 Olympic Games Africa zone first leg qualifying match against Algeria left

Kitwe for Lusaka yesterday morning after a briefing outing to the mining town where they played Power Dynamos in a training match on Wednesday afternoon at Arthur Davies. The Olympic team coached by Lucky Msiska who is being assisted by Nchanga Rangers trainer Bruce Mwape and Oswald Mutapa of Nkwazi is scheduled to leave for Algeria on Monday.

AllAfrica – All the Time