{"id":7835,"date":"2012-02-10T01:51:47","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T23:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/soccer-zambia-emerge-from-under-radar-to-reach-final\/"},"modified":"2012-02-10T01:51:47","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T23:51:47","slug":"soccer-zambia-emerge-from-under-radar-to-reach-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/soccer-zambia-emerge-from-under-radar-to-reach-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer-Zambia emerge from under radar to reach final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mark Gleeson<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LIBREVILLE<\/span> Feb 9 (Reuters) – Zambia, a team currently
\nwithout a national stadium, have emerged from the shadows at the
\nAfrican Nations Cup to grab an unexpected place in this Sunday’s
\nfinal against the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have been under the radar, away from the pressure and
\nmaybe not taken seriously by many,” said their 43-year-old coach
\nHerve Renard, who is back at the helm after former Italy
\ninternational Dario Bonetti was sacked in October.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Bonetti guided Zambia to top place in their
\nqualifying group, his tactics were seen as negative in a country
\nwith a long tradition of quick-paced play and attacking flair.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Renard’s return has delivered the traditional style,
\nculminating with a surprise 1-0 win over Ghana in Wednesday’s
\nsemi-final in Bata.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“When I go on the internet, I don’t see anything about our
\nteam,” Renard moaned after the weekend’s quarter-final win over
\nSudan in Bata, an efficient 3-0 victory which emphasised
\nZambia’s quality.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s because they don’t know our team in this tournament.
\nZambia did not rate in any of the predictions.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Renard conceded Zambia’s anonymity had suited his
\nplans. He had a good counter-attack strategy in place for their
\nopening match against Senegal where Zambia humbled one
\nof the pre-tournament favourites to set the tone for a
\nsuccessful run at a place in the final<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are under-rated because when people look at our squad
\nand see we have only foreign-based players they write us off,”
\nZambia Football Association general secretary George Kasengele
\ntold Reuters.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Gleeson LIBREVILLE Feb 9 (Reuters) – Zambia, a team currently without a national stadium, have emerged from the shadows at the African Nations Cup to grab an unexpected place in this Sunday’s final against the Ivory Coast. “We have been under the radar, away from the pressure and maybe not taken seriously by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}