Zambia’s strength in unity
It may end up being the individual talents of Ivory Coast who prevail, but even they in this tournament have based their play around, as the defender Sol Bamba put it, “keeping the back door shut”.
Their 3-0 weekend win over Equatorial Guinea means they have now scored eight goals without reply in four games in the tournament.
It was the togetherness of a Sudan squad based entirely at home that carried a group of not especially talented players into the quarter-final. In fact, such was their quality and rhythm through midfield that you wonder how far they might have gone with two proper centre-backs and a little more self-belief. But perhaps the best example of a team whose coherence makes the best of what they have is Zambia, the side that beat Sudan 3-0 on Saturday.
Their slow but steady rise has been one of the positive stories of African football over the past three or four years. While the egos of Nigeria and Cameroon have squabbled and underperformed, Zambia have found a shape and a style that works. There were signs of it in Angola two years ago, when they outplayed a cussed Nigeria in the quarter-final, only to be defeated on penalties, but it is in this tournament they have really flowered, their focus intensified by the desire to honour the Zambia side killed in 1993 in a plane crash off the coast of Libreville, where the final Sunday’s final will be played.
Herve Renard, clearly, is a major factor, the esteem in which their French coach is held evident by the gleeful high fives he shared with his bench in the final minutes of Saturday’s victory. He began his coaching career working alongside Claude Leroy, one of the great European coaches of African sides and succeeded him as manager of Cambridge United in 2004. After a stint at Cherbourg, he took over Zambia in 2008, and although the money on offer in Angola lured him away after the last Cup of Nations, he soon returned. It feels like his natural home.
That they might be more than tidy also-rans was apparent from their first game, against a fancied Senegal side. Renard had his side sit deep, draw Senegal onto them, and then hit them on the break, using the pace of the left-sided forward Rainford Kalaba, the movement of striker Emmanuel Mayuka and the intelligence of 29-year-old Christopher Katongo. It was a devastating dismantling of a supposedly gifted side, and it gave them momentum for the rest of the tournament.
Although they only drew with Libya in their second game, they could hardly have been more in control against equatorial Guinea in their third, holding the co-hosts at arm’s length in the first half before finding a winner in the second.
On Saturday, they were simply much too good for Sudan, Stophira Sunzu heading them in front from a first-half free-kick before Katongo followed in the rebound after his penalty had been saved and the substitute James Chamanga curled a late third.
Until he started the high fives, Renard had remained characteristically stony-faced on the bench, clad in his trademark white shirt and jeans. That he is tough was made clear last week when he sent home the midfielder Clifford Mulenga for refusing to apologise after he and two teammates breached curfew.
Generally, though, the atmosphere feels not unlike that generated by Oscar Washington Tabarez with Uruguay in last summer’s Copa America: there is respect for Renard and a general spirit that means the players, of whom only Mayuka plays at a top-flight European side (and that with Swiss side Young Boys) will accept his tactical plans without question, even if it means they have to take on unfamiliar or unpopular roles.
“If you left the Zambian players to their own devices, the whole team would just join the attack,” Renard said. “We have to try and keep their style, to stay organised at the same time and use the experience we got in 2010.”
He vowed as well to carry on wearing his lucky shirt.
“In 2010, we played the first game against Tunisia and I was wearing a white shirt,’ he said. “The second game I changed because I said I can’t wear all the time the same, and I put on a blue shirt and we lost against Cameroon. I won’t change but don’t worry, I clean it after the game. It is very clean — no problem.”
It’s more than luck, though, that has made Zambia challengers.
nLast night, Gabon suffered penalty shoot-out agony (5-4) as Mali prevented them from reaching a first ever semi-final in Libreville after the game ended 1-1.
In the other game, Ghana booked their place in the semi-finals with a 2-1 extra-time win over Tunisia.
Ghana’s semi-final with Zambia and Mali’s clash with Ivory Coast will be played on Wednesday.
