Zambia: Msiska Wants More Pros

29 March 2011

Zambia Under-23 soccer team head coach Lucky Msiska has said beating Rwanda in Sunday’s 2012 London Olympic Games preliminary round first leg was a good start to the squad’s campaign for an appearance at the prestigious competition.

Msiska, whose team recorded a first win since he took over tutoring the team having lost two earlier international assignments to Zimbabwe via a 4-3 aggregate in the on-going All-Africa Games qualifiers, said in Lusaka that Sunday’s win had boosted the coaching bench’s aspirations.

He said despite his lads’ failure to score more goals against Rwanda to cushion their return match in a fortnight, winning was better than losing or drawing.

Msiska, who was being assisted by Under-20 national team coach, Keegan Mumba, said he would be happy to have more foreign-based players in the return leg because Rwanda would have the home ground advantage.

He said the squad would need to be beefed up with more experienced players if the 2-0 win was to be defended in Kigali to pave way for the team’s first round progression.

“We played very well and I am happy we won although in the second half the tempo was down but what’s important is we won. The return will not be easy and we will need to play cautiously, attacking all the way and that is why we will also need more professionals like the way Fwayo and Kola helped in this game,” he said.

And Rwanda coach Erick Nshimiyamana conceded defeat and said the Zambians played a better game than his inexperienced players but promised to work on all the loopholes exposed during Sunday’s game.

Nshimiyamana said Msiska’s players played a better game than their visitors and could have scored more goals had the strikers been more accurate at goal.

“Zambia is a good side, like that number seven (Fwayo), he is a very good player and gave our defenders a tough time. We lost this game because we lacked experience and I hope we will do better in the next game,” said Nshimiyamana.

AllAfrica – All the Time