Recap: All stars vs the rest match

Having qualified for the fourth CHAN tournament, FAZ organized a friendly match in which fans voted for their preferred eleven tagged “ The Rest” that took on Micho ‘s provisional squad tagged “ All-Stars”. The Rest were being coached by former Zambia National Team coach Wedson Nyirenda.

Micho’s line up was a 4-2-3-1 formation, which comprised of young players. The back four had inexperienced players, in the likes of Golden Mafwenta, Pride Mwansa, Benedict Chepeshi (the most experienced of the foursome), and Dominic Chanda.

While in midfield he used Green Buffaloes’ pairing of Leonard Mulenga and Jack Chirwa in a double pivot. The other three attacking midfielders were the ZESCO United duo of Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba and Bruce Musakanya, while NAPSA Stars’ Collins Sikombe was playing as a number 10. This system uses a single striker, in this case, the lone striker was Emmanuel Chabula.

Micho’s side struggled to get going in the first 20 minutes of the game. Most of it was due to their inability to swiftly progress the ball from their defense to the midfield. The prime reason for this was Leonard Mulenga and Jack Chirwa not recognizing the need to drop into the defense as the third Centre Back. Another reason was that every time they tried to play route one football to Emmanuel Chabula the ball could not stick because he was unable to maintain possession.

Since in this formation, the attacking midfielders go narrow to allow the full-backs to press high up the pitch, their poor tracking back saw Wada encourage Gift Zulu and Fackson Kapumbu to bomb forward to cause problems. This gave Wada an overlapping option whenever the ball was fed to the brilliant Spencer Sautu, often causing 2v1 overload against the young Pride Mwansa.

Wada’s side should have scored in the 18th minute after a good interchange of passes between Dickson Chapa and Robin Siame who combined to create a scoring chance for Roger kola who sent his shot wide. The pressure continued to mount on micho’s side, it was just a matter of time before the “All-Stars” Team scored.

The opening goal came about because of the brilliant movement and awareness of Robin Siame. He dribbled past Benedict Chepeshi and made a free-kick, resulting in Clement Mwape goal with an assist from fellow ZESCO United teammate Fackson Kapumbu. It had to take 30 minutes for Micho’s team to conjure anything of note, Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba dribbled past three players and made a great pass to Bruce Musakanya who was left 1v1 with Fackson Kapumbu whom he beat easily but sent his shot wide off the mark.

The momentum had shifted to Micho’s side, they created another chance for Emmanuel Chabula who sent his header wide. It was in that period that Micho’s side could have had the equalizing goal because they were playing the type of football that he wanted them to play, they could play the ball in between the lines of “The Rest”. In the second half, he made three substitutions, Enock Sakala for Emmanuel Chabula, Moses Phiri for Collins Sikombe, and Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba for Felix Bulaya. With the young Enock Sakala at the focal point of the attack, it gave Micho another option of attacking whether to play route one or to pass the ball in between the lines.

In the 82nd minute substitute, Moses Phiri leveled matters from a Felix Bulaya assist. Micho’s side could have won the game when Moses Phiri crossed for Friday Samu who could not apply the finish, that’s how the game ended one-all.