Israel beat Zambia 4-2 on Thursday night in the two sides’ debut meeting in an international friendly match played at Petach Tikva.
Israel was cruising to a two-nil halftime lead thanks to goals from Tai Baribo and Din David in the 21st and 24th minutes respectively.
Kings Kangwa cut the deficit in the 55th minute and Rally Bwalya levelled matters in the 67th minute to score his debut Chipolopolo goal.
Bwalya had replaced compatriot and ex-Power Dynamos teammate Benson Sakala in the 30th minute.
But an Emmanuel Banda own-goal in the 89th minute restored Israel’s lead and Itamar Shviro’s stoppage-time goal saw Chipolopolo end 2023 on a losing note with their third successive loss heading into the New Year.
The match also marked interim coach and assistant trainer Moses Sichone’s final game in charge as FAZ prepares to name the next substantive boss.
Israeli Avram Grant is up against ex-Chipolopolo coaches Wedson Nyirenda and Honour Janza on the final three-man shortlist.
Why are you not writing about the bias referee?
Zambians are loud and clear, they want Moses Sichone as coach and Chris Katongo assistant.
And they want Jeban Tembo as goal keeper , no more than conceding Nsabata.
How unfortunate to lose, they played well in phases, especially in the 2nd half. For starters, they sang the national anthem with passion while beating their chests on the FAZ badge, which is rare. We should have scored first through Daka, only to concede two in two minutes. We fought back and equalised. With better tactics we perhaps would have kept the draw, or would even have won. Goal keeper perhaps to blame for the fourth goal – he kept ‘broadcasting’ the goal kicks up front through long balls that kept coming back to our half soon afterwards. Building up from the back to retain the ball seems to be the way these days. Unhappy with the final shortlist of coach – Avram Grant is a spent force; Nyirenda and Janza have been there before so let’s not go there again. We are tired of…
Losers only see biased referees. The truth is Zambian football is a headless chicken. No direction no leadership no ambition and in all this no expertise. Forget about Zambian football for the next ten years. Our golden era is dead and buried.
To produce another Ucar, Zoom or Kalusha will take 50 years.
Avram Grant. Balipwa kale. So is Honor chansa