. Nyirenda

CHIPOLOPOLO coach Wedson Nyirenda said he has no regrets dropping experienced players like Rainford Kalaba despite failing to qualify to the Russia 2018 World Cup finals.
Nyirenda said in a post-match interview here that he had no regrets because his objective of rebuilding the team has been met.
Alex Iwobi’s 73rd minute strike handed the Super Eagles a 1-0 win over the Chipolopolo at the Godswill Okpabio Stadium in Uyo which sealed their passage to Russia next year.
Nyirenda said there were no regrets after the defeat because the future looked bright for the team.
He said despite having injuries to key players, the team accounted itself very well adding that within a short period of time, he had build a solid team that could conquer Africa in the next one year.
“Our objective has been to rebuild the team and as you can see, within a short period of time we have the nucleus of the team in place. Within a short period of time we have a team that we can be proud of. Very disciplined young men, very hardworking players, very determined players. I think in the coming one year we will be champions of Africa,” Nyirenda said.
Asked if the decision to drop former skipper Kalaba came back to haunt him after the defeat, Nyirenda maintained that no player was indispensible and the every player in the team was equal to the other.
He, however, admitted that Nigeria won the match because of experience after converting a half chance compared to his side which dominated play but could not finish off the chances.
He further said Zambia was denied a legitimate goal by Augustine Mulenga which was wrongly ruled offside.
“The danger of African football is thinking that if you don’t have one player, you cannot do it. Like have always said there is no indispensible player in my team,” he said.
Nyirenda made a bold decision to drop key players after Zambia failed to pick a win in their first three qualifiers for the World Cup and Africa Cup.
“Kalaba was there in Ndola, we still lost, he was there again with other big stars against Mozambique and we lost. He hasn’t been there against Algeria home and away, we won. To me every player is equal,” Nyirenda said.
Zambia lost 2-1 to Nigeria in the World Cup qualifier before losing 1-0 against Mozambique in the Africa Cup qualifier which they followed up with a 1-1 draw against Cameroon.
In his quest to rebuild the team, Nyirenda dropped players like Kalaba, Fwayo Tembo, Nathan Sinkala and Cletus Chama and fused in players from the Under-20 national team who accounted themselves well by beating Algeria home and away.
Those Under-20 players include Paston Daka, Enock Mwepu, Emmanuel Banda, Fashion Sakala and Edward Chilufya.