CHIPOLOPOLO 2007 U20 (Youth Championship and World Cup)
Zambian football has served some exciting and satisfying moments, especially the junior level national teams. In 2007 Zambia participated at the U20 World Cup in Canada and this is an article dedicated to their exploits at the tournament.
The Junior Chipolopolo’s dream of playing at the world cup in Canada began with a 3-stage qualification round where Zambia joined in the first round after the preliminaries. Zambia’s first game came against Madagascar whom they beat 5-2 on aggregate after a 4-1 victory in the first leg and a 1-1 draw in the second leg. In the second round the Chipolopolo met South Africa whom they beat 2-3 on aggregate after first losing 2-1 away then beating them 2-0 in the second leg. With those results the dream was getting closer as they qualified for the 2007 African Youth Championship. At the youth championship Zambia was drawn in the same group as Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroon; the first game was against Nigeria which they lost 4-2, the second game came against Cameroon whom they beat 3-2 and the last game being a decider against Egypt; the Chipolopolo settled quickly in the game and ended up beating Egypt 3-0 securing top spot in the group therefore earning qualification to the 2007 U20 World Cup, however, further progression at the tournament was halted by a narrow defeat to eventual winners Congo and a third place play-off loss to Gambia meant Zambia ended the tournament in 4th place, thus the dream was achieved with Zambia’s Fwayo Tembo finishing as Top Scorer with 5 goals and 2nd place went to another Zambian Clifford Mulenga who had 3 goals to his name.
At the World Cup in Canada, the Chipolopolo were put in the same group as Juan Mata’s Spain, Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani of Uruguay and finally Jordan in group B. Zambia’s first game came against Jordan on 1st July, 2007 which ended in a 1-1 Draw with Fwayo Tembo grabbing the Chipolopolo’s first goal via a penalty, in the second game the junior Chipolopolo lost to Spain 2-1 after Mario Suarez and Juan Mata scored for Spain with William Njobvu getting the only Zambian goal, in the third game against Uruguay was when the Chipolopolo would get maximum points after Clifford Mulenga and Rodger Kola found the back of the net thus securing a 2-0 victory over Luis Suarez and Co. With those results, the Chipolopolo finished second in group B behind Spain and just above Uruguay who had the same points as Zambia however the Chipolopolo had a better goal difference thus qualifying for the round of 16 were they met Nigeria and lost narrowly via a 2-1 score line with Rodger Kola getting the only goal for Zambia.
The Chipolopolo walked out of the tournament with a few records to their name as they ended as the third best placed African team at the tournament as well as being ranked as number 11 in the Final Ranking, out-ranking the likes of Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay and Poland all of whom account for themselves quite well in the world of football.
The squad that represented Zambia at the World Cup:
Goal keepers: Jacob Banda, Danny Munyao and Bob Gift Banda.
Defenders: Joseph Zimba, Henry Nyambe, Dennis Banda, Richard Chibwe and Goodson Kachinga.
MidFielders: Peter Malama, Richard Phiri, Clifford Mulenga, Fwayo Tembo, Sebastian Mwansa, William Njobvu, Musatwe Simutowe, Justine Zulu and Stoppila Sunzu.
Forwards: Rodger Kola, Emmanuel Mayuka, Floyd Phiri and Simon Lupiya.
