|
|
|
|
| Sports |
| Ziese blows his top |
|
by
Garry Chirwa, 15 July 2006
-
05:06:32
|
Flames coach Burkhard Ziese on Friday made his position plain: that Fam should not expect miracles from the Cosafa Castle Cup mini-tournament in Namibia following its decision to turn down his demand not to release players from camp for Super League games.
“I am angry, very angry. No one and I repeat, no one should expect the team to do well because of the costly decision that was made yesterday [Thursday],” said Ziese.
The coach, sounding very annoyed, said as a result of the decision, the Flames will lose seven training sessions and he won’t have a chance to assess the foreign-based players—captain Peter ‘Mjojo’ Mponda and midfielder Robert Ng’ambi—who arrived in the country yesterday.
“I have released the players against my wish but I feel sorry for the country. Fam wants the team to win the tournament and yet they go ahead to make funny decisions of releasing players from camp with barely a week ahead of the tournament.
“We’ll not train today [yesterday], tomorrow [today] and Monday. Some of the players will even travel long distances to Lilongwe and Mzuzu for league games, some might get knocks.
“To make matters even worse, there are two players that have flown from South Africa and they will not train until Tuesday...these are players that I will only have a single day to assess before we leave for Namibia and someone out there expects that we’ll win. Are we serious?” wondered the Flames coach.
Ziese was reacting to Fam’s remarks that while it is impressed with his performance so far, the real test of his pedigree will be next weekend’s Cosafa Castle Cup mini showcase in Namibia.
Fam president Walter Nyamilandu said: “As his employers we are impressed with the way he has got the show off the road. He has won three out of four games (against Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana) and that is not bad for a start.
“But his biggest challenge will be next weekend’s mini-tournament in Windhoek and eventually the regional championship.”
The Fam president also said the Flames’ dramatic rise on the Fifa Rankings from 107 to 80 is clear testimony that the German mentor is on the right track.
“But he still has a lot of work to do especially on game tactics like level of concentration and the speed of executing passes. And we still lack the killer punch,” noted Nyamilandu, himself a former Flames’ defence pillar.
And reacting to Ziese’s comment that he is not regarding the Castle Cup as a serious tournament, Nyamilandu said: “Well, that’s up to him but as we said, his future with the Flames hinges on his ability to win the Castle Cup and qualify for the 2008 Africa Nations Cup in Ghana.
“It is a corporate objective that we must win the Castle Cup and his [Ziese] objectives need to be in line with the umbrella aspirations of the association.”
Soccer analysts Charles Nyirenda and Felix Ngamanya-Sapawo noted that though Ziese has started well, he is yet to face tough opposition.
Said Nyirenda: “Yes, we can say he has started on a good note, but we also have to look at the strength of the opposition that he has faced so far.
“For example, the strength of the teams that participated at the four-nations tournament in Mozambique cannot be measured in the same line as Morocco who are our opponents in the Africa Nations Cup tournament. Zimbabwe also took their reserve side to the competition.”
Sapawo said: “I watched both games against Botswana and the positive thing I noted was that Ziese has introduced a system whereby the players are now able to play as a unit and not as individuals.
“They were able to defend and attack as a unit which was not the case in the past. He has also instilled discipline and is able to motivate the players. But having done well in the first three games, Ziese should be looking at playing against tough teams especially from West and North Africa. That is when we can know whether we are making strides,” said Sapawo.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
