Posts Tagged ‘Herve Renard’

2013 Cup of Nations preview: Zambia

Posted: January 12, 2013 by Salim Masoud Said in Afcon 2013 Previews, Africa Cup of Nations 2013
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Zambia's probable XI.

Zambia’s probable XI.

Zambia injected raison d’etre into a sorry world that views international football with increasing apathy when they won the Cup of Nations last year, and they’re now back to defend their title.

Part of the joy for Zambians is that their photo-finish triumph didn’t come out of the blue. The Chipolopolo (the Copper-headed Bullets) had been running the marathon for six years thanks to the vision of the eminent Kalusha Bwalya; persisting with a studious group of players since the 2006 Cup of Nations, steadily improving tournament-by-tournament, and reaping the rewards for their prudent team-building when and where it mattered most – in Libreville, just miles away from where a plane full of the Zambian national team crashed into the sea in 1993, killing all aboard. Not even a revisionist could deny their happy ending.

And their rewards haven’t ceased there. Such is the experience omnipresent in the squad – the studious core are set to play in their fifth consecutive Cup of Nations, and only two of them are over 30 – that it’s difficult to completely dismiss them as one-hit wonders. For many of their players, playing at these tournaments is second nature. Even the youngest player in the squad, Porto’s 19-year-old left-back Emmanuel Mbola, who was in the 2010 Cup of Nations squad, is playing in his second tournament. Zambia aren’t prepared to slip away like a pop single on the radio just yet.

Eighteen of the twenty-three that were part of the AFCON-winning squad return, and coach Herve Renard still deploys the same starting XI that started in last year’s AFCON final in a 4-4-2 formation, morphing into a 4-2-4 when they spring into attack. As with last time around, it’s the protean quality in the starting XI that makes the Chipolopolo vehemently venomous. The flexibility of the Zambian players allows Renard to utilise myriad systems, coping with the different questions the opposition poses.

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SFG’s 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Awards

Posted: February 13, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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The hardest thing about football is finding a replacement for it when it’s all over because there just  isn’t any, especially as we quite simply witnessed one of the greatest major tournaments of all-time. So we decided to do half-review, half-awards bash to cherish what we’ve just witnessed. Tom Legg, East African football coinosseur, is back and he is joined by Steve of Spirit of Mirko, an African football enthusiast, both of these guys have been providing excellent Cup of Nations coverage,

Here is the panel for the awards:

Tom – Tom is an East African football enthusiast and expert and has produced some fantastic tactical pieces during the Cup of Nations. For further reading of his expert reports and tactical analyses you can visit his blog Eastern Promise and follow him on twitter.

Steve – Steve is an African football enthusiast, Cardiff City supporter and founder of the brilliant, Guardian-nominated 100-football-blogs-to-follow blog Spirit of Mirko which deals with football’s trivialities, curiosities and statistics, although has also diversified into African football recently with enlightening pieces like this. You can follow him on twitter.

Salim – Editor and co-founder of this humble site, Salim is obsessed with all things football and has been watching the Cup of Nations religiously.

James -  Co-founder and writer, video-producer extraordinaire and the strategist behind our marketing ploys.

Sagar – Editor and writer, has a fetish for fringe players and is equally knowledgeable in the field of cricket.

Amro – Editor and co-founder, his current dream is that Zico will lead Iraq to Brazil in 2014 so he can join the samba party.

Joe – Writer,  a recent addition to the team, he has a fine eye for tactical detail and has already done some brilliant pieces of analysis.

Kevin – Writer, Kevin is one of the two members on the team who had a native nation to support at the Cup of Nations.  He’s still nursing the wounds of Ghana’s exit but the future is bright for the Black Stars.

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2012 Africa Cup of Nations Final Preview: Zambia v Ivory Coast

Posted: February 10, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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Ladies and gentlemen, the moment we’ve all been waiting for; the game played with ubiquitous percussion and constant rhythm from the stands, the final of the Cup of Nations 2012 and the biggest game in African football. There’s no doubt in my mind that we have the two best sides at the tournament in terms of the standard of performances and quality.

Zambia enchanted during the group stages, being at the forefront of the revival of the attacking flair that we associated with African football south of the Sahara in the yesteryear, Rainford Kalaba and Christopher Katongo the poster boys of the revival. Ivory Coast, meanwhile, have been playing the sort of football that is typically branded the “Hallmark of Champions” – productively efficient, conservative football (or ‘boring’ football, if you believe the decriers) and have conceded no goals so far in the tournament. Yet in their semi-final victory over Mali we saw glimpses that when the quartet of Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Yaya Toure and Gevinho are on their game, they can be a very aesthetically pleasing side indeed.

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Chipolopolo fire group stage warning shots

Posted: February 2, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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Judge Zambia by the names on their squad list and you might be rather underwhelmed, but many of those who have watched them have been impressed by the gloriously-named Chipolopolo (the Copper-headed Bullets) – not only at this year Cup of Nations but also in the previous edition, where they exited on penalties to Nigeria. “They are a very good team,” said Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama after their exit in 2010, “believe me, they have a great future.”

We should start believing him. Led by Frenchman Hervé Renard – a touchline-enticing, cavorting, bottle-throwing, white-shirt-wearing Superman – Zambia are a throwback to the non-Northern African sides of yesteryear that didn’t rely on Papa Bouba Diop-esque European-spectacled model of a player based on bison-like strength. Indeed, this Zambia team possesses a core group of technically-gifted, protean footballers dancing to the same vuvuzuela beat who deviate from the norm; the attacking quartet of Emmanuel Mayuka, Chris Katongo, Rainford Kalaba and Isaac Chansa are all below 5’10. Naturally, then, the onus is based on keeping the ball on the ground. “Bola Panshi [Ball on the floor]!” Renard berates his players whenever the ball leaves the ground needlessly. When his team couldn’t play the ball on the floor in the wet, soggy pitch in the 2-2 draw against Libya he lamented: “It’s unbelievable to play on a pitch like this. It was kick and rush this afternoon, not football.”

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Jaime Lannister Leads Zambia Into Battle

Posted: January 23, 2012 by thearabscot in African Cup of Nations 2012, African Football
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Hervé Renard, the gesticulating and animated manager of Zambia has already captured many peoples imaginations at this early stage of the tournament. While it is still far too early to draw conclusions, we can safely say that the one time defender has drilled his side very well. Indeed, they play like a disciplined European team (minus the lapses in concentration as the second half wore on); and in African football, this is a huge advantage.
Contrast this with the wayward defending of Senegal and their high line which almost instantaneously blurred into a misshapen mess on the field and you can see the impact that Hervé Renard’s managerial style has had on Zambia.

But this is not the real point of the post. Rather, what I am here to do is to draw your attention to the fact that aforementioned manager is in fact none other than Jaime Lannister (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) from the TV Show Game of Thrones. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we have our first dead ringer of the tournament:

Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster- Waldau)

Hervé Renard

Image Copyright © 2011 HBO

If you spot any other look alikes at this African Cup of Nations tournament, do let us know via twitter, facebook or in the comments section below. Oh and get watching Game of Thrones. Think LOTR, but on a much grander scale and on TV, quality stuff!

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