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Report - Africa Cup of Nations

Zambia's spooky victory

Hervé Renard, the Zambia coach, said the team’s run to the final was written somewhere.

Reuters/ Louafi Larbi
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But talk to any professional manager or player and they’ll all say you need slices of luck to win: a ricochet, a deflection, an unusual bounce.

But the Zambians had otherworldly amounts of good fortune. Ghana ’s Asamoah Gyan saw Kennedy Mweene save his spot kick early in the semi-final. And during the final, Côte d’Ivoire ’s Didier Drogba skied his penalty high over the bar 20 minutes from time.

The script cited by Renard was fashioned nearly 19 years ago when 18 Zambian players died in a plane crash just outside Libreville airport.

They were on their way to a qualifier in Senegal for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Strongly fancied to reach that competition, they’d been anointed favourites to take the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations.

Skippered by Kalusha Bwalya, they were the pride of the land. Bwalya, now 48, and president of the Zambia Football Association, isn’t prone to oversentimentality on the tragedy. He escaped death because he was making his way to the game from Europe where he was playing with PSV Eindhoven.

But the squad’s demise before it could harvest the trophies cast a pall over subsequent teams. “Everybody loved the 93 team because they played the kind of football that we’ve seen from the Zambians in this tournament,” said Bwalya. “They were excellent football players who’d been together for about six years.

“So when people talk about the team, it’s not just about the people who died, they talk about a formidable side who brought lots of joy week-in-week-out and brought lots of wonderful things to the Zambian people.

“The people have missed that and any team that plays for Zambia is going to be measured according to that. They left a standard that was very high.”

The current squad of Zambians played their group stage matches and their quarter-final in Bata and Malabo. The Equato-Guinean capital was also the site for their semi-final victory over Ghana.

On arrival in Libreville for the final, their first port of call was the site of the crash on 27 April 1993.

The squad, led by Bwalya, walked along the shores of the Atlantic where the plane came down and laid flowers to pay tribute to the players and the other 12 who died.

Renard said: “We spoke about this at the training camp in South Africa. I told the players … it’s a bit odd but we can play the final in Gabon and our first game is against Senegal.”

It was in that opening game that Zambia first raised eyebrows. The Senegalese team entered the tournament as one of the dark horses behind the outright favourites Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire. Zambia won 2-1. “The first half we played against Senegal, I think the boys surprised themselves to play so well,” recalled Bwalya. “We could have scored three goals and I think from there we knew what our formula was good and we believed in our possibilities. We felt that when we went forward we could score.

“It’s been a marvellous journey for the boys to come here and not lose one match at a Cup of Nations. It’s unbelievable.”

So was the way the Zambian goal led a charmed life during the semi-final against Ghana who should have been at least 2-0 up at half time.

In the final Yaya Touré missed a splendid opening after half an hour before Drogba’s penalty blunder. Max Gradel could have clinched it for the Ivorians two minutes from time but with Mweene stranded, his shot rolled inches wide.

Or did the goal suddenly get smaller? Ivorian journalists were sufficiently freaked before the final to ask coach François Zahoui if he was at all concerned about the possibility of supernatural intervention.

Zahoui, while not laughing off the suggestions, retorted that plenty of people were sending their good vibes from Côte D’Ivoire.

But when the 51-year-old reviews the final he’ll see putative titans of the world game reduced to lumbering stumps. The flair and fantasy flowed from their apparent inferiors. The inquest into the failure of Côte d’Ivoire’s golden generation might well cost Zahoui his job.

They seeped stodgy functionalism during the tournament. And though they rose to the final with nine goals scored and none conceded, they will return to Abidjan with the CAF trophy for Fair Play but few choruses about a joyous campaign.

By contrast in Zambia, the euphoria of fulfilling a lost legacy might satisfy a metaphysical symmetry but it will yield more altogether mundane challenges.

“We said to ourselves at the training camp. We could get to the place where our national team perished, said 27-year-old Mweene. “And we said that if we did get there we had to do well so that their spirits could rest in peace.

“But this is not the end, it’s the start. Any team now – big or small – will want to come and beat us. We’ve made it difficult for ourselves. We’re the African champions and everyone will want to beat them.”

Renard was equally cautious even as his team brandished their medals. “I want to stay with Zambia but this is the most difficult time," said the former Ghana assistant coach. "The people at home have to understand that we were not the best coming into this Africa Cup of Nations, we just did a fantastic tournament and that means we have to keep our feet on the ground and not go round thinking we are the best and that nobody can beat us.

“No, it’s not like that we have to have to concentrate and do lots of work.”

And of course have a helping hand. The final minutes of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations will be stuff of Zambian legend to be sung and embellished for more than the next 19 years.

Côte d’Ivoire start the penalty shootout, player after player hits the target Drogba included. The Zambians match them shot for shot. Into sudden death and Siake Tiene puts the Ivorians 6-5 up. Nathan Sinkala levels 6-6. Didier Ya Konan scores 7-6. Chisamba Lungu 7-7.

Kolo Touré sees hit shot saved 7-7 and then Rainford Kalaba, the slightly framed lad from Kitwe who chopped up Yaya Touré, the reigning African player of the year, runs up for history but …. no… his penalty flies over the bar 7-7.

Arsenal star Gervinho steps up – wonders if his dreadlocks are swaying properly - and misses.

Enter Stoppila Sunzu for a second chance to take the crown. He smashes the ball past Copa Barry and Zambia rejoices.

Fifteen penalties scored, three missed.

Like Renard said, this one was scripted somewhere.

By brilliant ghostwriters.

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