A TOUGH PHASE FOR THE BOYS, LWANDAMINA

ZESCO United coach George Lwandamina yesterday witnessed another heart-breaking 1-0 defeat away to relegation threatened Nkwazi Football Club.

This was a third defeat in the league for the current FAZ/MTN Super League Champions after losing to Nkana, Forest Rangers and now Nkwazi. ZESCO United could only manage to pick a crucial 3-points at home against Kabwe Youth Sports Academy (KYSA).

The team has further struggled in the 2019/2020 CAF Champions league were they are yet to record a victory.

ZESCO United drew 1-all against Primeiro de Agosto on match day one, lost at home to TP Mazembe on match day two and later drew at home to Zamalek who this week beat United 2-0 in a game played at the Al Salam stadium in Cairo, Egypt.

United have thus far seen their chances of qualifying to the next stage of the continents most prized competition slowly ebbing away.

However, it will be harsh to ignore the overwhelming number of fixtures that ZESCO United have had to deal with both in the league and the CAF Champions league.

In a space of over six weeks, ZESCO United have had to play four games in the Super league and another four in the CAF Champions league.

Coach George Lwandamina is hardly a man who finds comfort in giving excuses when the team loses.

However, the loss to Zamalek and Nkwazi in a space of four day’s reminded him of how much the team has hard to cope with the pressure of fulfilling both domestic and continental fixtures in a short space of time.

“If you saw the composition of the team; it was slightly different from the usual starters. It is in the same vein that we gave others a little bit of some rest because of the intensity of the game in Egypt coupled with travelling. It was easy for us to see in training that the players were tired so we had to leave some behind. We made a decision to use Jesse and Adrian for the sake of inspiring their colleagues. In totality, this has had an effect on the team. However, the results we are getting is just a phase,” Lwandamina said.

Yesterday’s week 8 rescheduled fixture was played under very difficult conditions with a heavily waterlogged Edwin Imboela pitch proving too difficult for both sets of players to conjure-up coordinated passes.

It only took 18 minutes for the Police Sponsored side to find the back of the net after Eric Chomba headed home the first and only goal of the match.

ZESCO United struggled to settle in the early hours of the match managing only one shot on target through a Jesse Were close range header that was well saved by Charles Mutanga.

“We lost concentration in the early minutes of the game. That’s what gave them the opportunity to score. After that, they put all their men behind the ball, it seems that’s how every team will be playing when they face ZESCO United. Like I have said before, the boys will rise again. You can see in all the games we have played that they are putting in their best unfortunately results haven’t been favourable to us. I expect them to rise again.”

Author: Desmond Katongo