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| Sports |
| Mponda, Moyo bashes coaches |
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by
Garry Chirwa, 28 June 2004
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08:50:21
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National soccer team stand-in captain Peter ‘Mjojo’ Mponda, a player known for plain talk, on Friday had a go at the national soccer team coaching panel for its decision to come up with a blown-up 32-man Flames’ call-up for next Saturday’s joint World Cup and Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Guinea describing it as unjustifiable.
The plain-spoken defender said he saw no logic for the coaches to call a bloated squad of 32 to prepare for a game which is just 10 days away.
“Honestly why should the coaches call 32 players...how are they going to assess all these players in the short time that is there?
“It’s good for competition to select as many players as possible but this is not talent identification, we are preparing for a crucial game and what the coaches should have done was to call a reasonable group so that they can easily concentrate on rectifying the mistakes that they noted in the recent games which we lost to Botswana and Mozambique,” said the blunt Flames’ star rear guard.
He added: “I am not trying to undermine their authority of the coaches but I think sometimes it’s good to speak out on some of these issues.”
Fam technical committee chair Henry Moyo shared Mponda’s sentiments saying: “A bloated squad only complicates preparations, I agree with Mponda that there is no way you can assess a squad of 32 in a week?
“All this boils down to the issue of consultation which some of us have been singing about. Does the coaching panel mean that they can’t come up with at least a squad of 23 from which they can select a team for the game against Guinea?” wondered the celebrated former Flames coach.
However, a member of the coaching panel John Kaputa said the move to call 32 players is justified.
“Not all the players will show up, we expect the foreign-based players to join us late so it was necessary that we should call quite a number of players,” said Kaputa.
Meanwhile South Africa-based gangling forward Russell Mwafulirwa who arrived in the country on Tuesday, said he is a doubtful starter in next Saturday’s game following an injury he picked up against Botswana’s Zebras.
“I had a knock just below my right ankle and it is giving me sleepless nights, I am even having problems to walk and I very much doubt if I will be fit for the game against Guinea,” said the lanky forward who is supposed to go for match fitness test on Tuesday.
Already, another South African-based midfielder Peter Mgagira has once again ruled himself out of the fixture while veteran John Maduka is giving his call-up a huge amount of thought after being ignored in the games against Mozambique and Botswana. |
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