. Lwandamina

By GWEN CHIPASULA –
CHIPOLOPOLO coach ‘Chicken’ George Lwandamina has been roped in to boost the Under-23 soccer squad technical bench as Zambia eyes a return to the Olympic Games for the first time since 1988.
The Zambia Under-23 squad is heading to Senegal today to participate in the 2015 Africa Under-23 Championship where the best three teams will represent the continent at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
Lwandamina joins the technical bench headed by his assistant at the senior national team, Fighton Simukonda.
Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) communications manager, Nkweto Tembwe said in Lusaka yesterday that Lwandamina was part of the technical benches for all national teams starting from Under-17 to the senior squad.
“The national team coach will travel with the Under-23 team tomorrow and, besides, most of the players are also in the CHAN (African Nations Championship) team and so are the two coaches, so I see them working so well,” he said.
Meanwhile, Simukonda has charged that his team is 80 per cent ready for the tournament, which starts on November 28 to December 12.
Simukonda promised that his team was going to Senegal to perform and the chances of getting past the group stage were high.
Simukonda picked his final 21 players for the Senegal assignment on Sunday.
He left out Patson Daka and Larry Bwalya from Power Dynamos, Zanaco‘s trio of Charles Zulu , Dave Daka and Mangani Banda, Felon Sitonya of Green Buffaloes and Kabwe Warriors’ Godfrey Ngwenya.
Simukonda said he was happy with the way the team was responding to training and that the final selection of the squad was done on merit because of stiff competition among the players.
“Chances of performing well are there. We are going there to pass the group stage, that is why we are going there. Otherwise why are we not going there if we won’t perform?” he said.
The squad was boosted by the arrival of Egypt-based striker Patrick Ngoma and midfielder Aubrey Chirwa from Zimbabwe who took part in yesterday’s training session.
Simukonda said the duo showed some good signs in their first training session.
Other professionals called up for the Senegal outing are Lubambo Musonda, the Armenia-based midfielder and Egypt-based striker Ronald ‘Sate sate’ Kampamba.
Zambia is in Group A with South Africa, Tunisia and hosts Senegal.
Simukonda’s charges will face Tunisia in their opening game on November 28.