11/05/2020
Following the articles published on this page, there have been many requests for a book to be written. The ZAMBIAN GAME was published in 2014 and is still very relevant today.
This is an excerpt from the book, available on the Amazon Kindle app as an e-book. It is available at $4.99. It can be downloaded on your iPad, tablet or phone. The Kindle App is downloadable from Google Play or Apple Store.
The hard copy edition will be printed in August 2020.
This is part of the chapter on Great Team's for your perusal
Great Teams
Ever since the early seventies, I have been enthralled by the game of football and cannot imagine a life away from the many Saturday afternoons spent in the stands roaring my team forward. Over the years I have watched many fine teams in action, both at club and international level, and seen the game taken to new heights with magical displays as players responded to the occasion, rising above themselves and performing beyond the bounds of their limitations.
Though age precluded me from watching many of the stars of the era before the mid-seventies and I cannot speak for that generation, I was still fortunate enough to catch glimpses of many great players at the tail end of their careers such as Dickson Makwaza, Bernard Chanda, Dick Chama and Godfrey Chitalu. Lack of television pictures makes it impossible for later generations to see what made Zambian football great during that era. Today's youth will never have the chance to watch footage of the great players of the past. Football stars, among them Samuel 'Zoom' Ndlovu, Godfrey Chitalu, Alex Chola and Peter Kaumba, legends in their own right, are just fading memories in the minds of aging football fans.
The first great team that comes to my mind from my youth is the Green Buffaloes side of the seventies. Captained by the great centre back, Dick Chama, they dominated the club scene during this period and were in a class of their own. Such was the extent of their superiority that they walked away with three successive league titles, from 1973 to 1975, and won it six times in nine years between 1973 and 1981, their last league success. Playing the favoured formation of that era, 4-2-4, they swept aside all opposition with relative ease. Their game was based on rock-solid defence and the creative skills of Jani Simulambo to feed the deadly Obby Kapita in attack. They epitomised the might of Zambian football in the seventies and for this reason, must go down as one of the greatest Zambian club sides ever.
The Power Dynamos team that reached the final of the African Cup Winners Cup in 1982 falls into this category too. If they had a weakness it was in the defensive department where they lacked players of true international class. Blackwell Chalwe was a decent enough goalkeeper but his height precluded him from true international status. He always had to live with the fact that his error against Arab Contractors in the 1982 African Cup Winners Cup probably cost Dynamos the chance for international success. What was admirable was the way in which he bounced back from adversity to re-establish himself as first choice goalkeeper.
In 1995, on a visit to the Copperbelt, we sat and reminisced about the early days at Dynamos for hours. Three days later he was dead, the victim of an automobile crash, another sad loss for Zambian football. Joseph Mwewa was solid at right back. He established himself in early days when Power Dynamos were still playing in the amateur league, rose with the team through the ranks and for many years was the first choice right-back until he was eventually succeeded by Charles 'Ninja' Kafula.
Edwin Kanyanta won a few international caps and like Mwewa was strong in defensive qualities but limited in the more positive aspects of the game. He was nicknamed 'business man' for his no-nonsense approach to the game. It was said, among his peers, that he would not hesitate to warn them of dire consequences should they lose because he had a family to take care of.
The centre back, Francis Mutembo, was a solid but unspectacular player who did his job diligently. His defensive partner, Michael Musonda, went on to captain the national side and in him, Power Dynamos had a defender of true international class. He oozed quality and despite his relative lack of height, was the match of any striker in the air. The difference between Musonda and his compatriots in the back four was his ability to comfortably bring the ball out of defence and find his more advanced teammates with a perfect pass. He showed composure on the ball not normally associated with defenders and on his forward runs showed that he could play as he linked defence to midfield.
Chris Mtonga played the defensive midfield role, screening the back four with characteristic robustness. His midfield partner Stafford Mtalama was assigned the creative role and, for a while, reached the peak of his game before fading away. His efficient short passing game was essential to the way Dynamos played.
It was in the top half of the field that Dynamos proved to be unstoppable. The dribbling skills of Lucky Missal provided plenty of firepower down the right flank. Msiska's dribbling ability was coupled with a good first touch and an awareness of movement around him. His unique dribbling skills sent full backs the wrong way as he approached with feints and quick feet movement, and then delivered accurate crosses into the box. Peter Kaumba was in a class of his own down the left. Powerful, explosive and deadly in front of goal, in full flight, he was an awesome sight and he regularly cut into the box, shooting with either left or right foot with equal venom.
The young and energetic Wisdom Chansa worked himself into the ground in every match, never giving less than one hundred percent and, with time, became the driving force behind the team, running the show and taking responsibility when the team needed a lift. He was one player who, through sheer hard work, played above his abilities and is an example to any young player in the game.
Finally, Alex Chola was the master of all. Unstoppable on his day, he had skills that are unlikely to be matched in Zambian football. His ability to kill the ball with a single touch and his uncanny ability to play pinpoint long range passes put him in a class of his own. A body swerve would wrong-foot defenders and see him set off on a mazy run that would inevitably end with the ball in the back of the net.
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