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| Sports |
| Flames, Zambia equals |
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by
Charles Nyirenda, 15 August 2003
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14:09:02
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Pundits and bookmakers place odds on match outcomes often and today’s Cosafa Castle Cup match between traditional foes Malawi and Zambia is no exception. In the not too distant past, this afternoon’s game would have been a straightforward affair but these days the situation is not all that clear cut.
As we may recall, it was Zambia who booted out Malawi from the inaugural Cosafa Castle Cup competition 4-0 in Lusaka in 1997. The following year they again inflicted a 1-0 defeat on the Flames at Chichiri Stadium. On both occasions the Chipolopolo boys progressed to the finals and grabbed the trophy.
The soccer history between Malawi and Zambia shows that of all teams on the continent of Africa, it is Chipolopolo that have tortured the Flames most. In the 70’s it was Zambia who initiated Malawi into international football with heavy defeats.
The first time Malawi joined the African Nations Cup in 1975, the team played the preliminary eliminator against Zambia, losing 6-1 in Blantyre in the first leg and drawing 3-3 in Ndola.
Soon after that the two teams met again in an Olympic qualifier and Zambia triumphed once more. The teams drew 1-1 in Blantyre and Zambia won 4-1 in Lusaka. A couple of years later Zambia were to eject Malawi from the World Cup winning 4-0 and 1-0 in Blantyre and Lusaka respectively.
In those days, once Malawi were paired against Zambia, soccer fans here at home knew the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Although the jinx appeared to have been broken when Malawi beat Zambia 1-0 in the Senior Challenge Cup in 1977 in Mogadishu, and 3-2 in the finals of the same competition in 1978, it was business as usual in the period between 1979 and 1988.
However, Malawi repeated the feat of a decade earlier in the Senior Challenge Cup final when the team emerged winners to become champion after trouncing the chief rival 3-1 on home soil.
From around 1990 to 2001 Malawi football went into hibernation and turned into whipping boys for any opponent. The turn around started the moment Danish coach Kim Splidsboel got it together. In this very Cosafa Cup, South Africa fell in 2001, Angola and Zambia followed them in the quarterfinals and semis respectively in 2002.
Since then there is a new found confidence in the team. Bad defeats to Nigeria and Angola in the Nations Cup months earlier were blamed on inexperience but this time round the big guns who boycotted the team such as Patrick Mabedi and John Maduka are back after sorting out differences with Fam.
The Flames seem to have truly redressed the imbalance that existed with Zambia such that today the two teams will march onto the field of play as equals.
Zambia are no longer the invincible side they were once considered to be. How times change! |
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