By FELIX MALUNGA and SANDRA MWILA –
CAPTAIN Lubambo Musonda has joined the Zambia Under-20 soccer team that jetted into Senegal on Sunday for the 2015 Orange Africa Youth Championship with the immediate task being today’s preparatory match against the hosts in Dakar.
The Hector Chilombo-coached side is one of the earliest teams to arrive in Senegal for the 19th edition of the CAF Under-20 Championship which gets underway on March 8.
Chilombo said from Senegal that Musonda joined his teammates yesterday from Armenia and to complete the full list of players summoned for the tournament.

Musonda

He said Musonda’s arrival was motivation to the players who have set the challenge of winning the title top of the agenda with qualifying for the New Zealand 2015 FIFA World Cup a bonus.
He said the team was in high spirits and everyone was looking forward to facing Senegal in a friendly match.
“This friendly match will be very important to the players and us the coaches as it will help us see which areas need to be worked on and which ones have improved. I feel coming early will greatly help us acclimatise,” he said.
Meanwhile, delegation leader Jeffrey Chipilingu said the team arrived in Dakar in the early hours of Sunday after an eight-hour flight from Johannesburg, South Africa.
Chipilingu said the players had the first training session at a military ground to shake off the jetlag.
He said the Under-20 squad, which had another training session yesterday afternoon, were geared for the tournament and hopeful of putting up a good show.
“We look forward to have a good tournament here. The players are also geared and hope to have a good competition,” he said.
Chipilingu, who is a Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) committee member, said the team was looking forward to today’s final preparatory match against Senegal, kicking off at 18:00 hours Zambian time.
He said the squad was thankful to FAZ president, Kalusha Bwalya for clinching a friendly against Senegal.
The Zambian team will later in the week shift from the Senegalese capital, Dakar to its Group B battlefront, Mbour in readiness for the start of the continental competition.
Zambia will open its CAF Under-20 account on March 9 against Mali at Stade Mbour-Caroline Faye and three days later face Ghana before wrapping up the Group B assignments with a tie against sworn rivals, South Africa at Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor in Dakar.
The four semi-finalists will represent Africa at the 2015 FIFA Under-20 World Cup finals in New Zealand.
Zambia has been to the Under-20 World Cup in 1999 and 2007.