Coaches of Zambia and Sudan interact with Media

Kumasi, Jan. 23, GNA - The national coaches of Zambia and Sudan on Tuesday night held post match press conferences with the media to brief them on their impressions and expectations of their subsequent matches at the ongoing 26th edition of the MTN CAN 2008 soccer fiesta. Coach Mohammed Abdalla Alla of Sudan, who was the first to address the Media, congratulated the Zambians for their performance, adding that his team played with good players but lacked the finishing power.

He said this was the team's first appearance in such a big tournament and it would give them the much needed experience and expressed the hope that it would do well in the second match against Egypt, adding that the players made a lot of mistakes in defence and upfront and missed a number of chances that came their way. Coach Abdallah said he was very optimistic that the players would improve upon their performance. "We played well at the midfield but made mistakes at goal. We are not under any pressure. We have a better chance with our first appearance after 32 competitions and hope to do well in the subsequent matches."

Mr Patrick Phiri, the Zambian national coach, thanked the Local Organizing Committee of the competition promising that they would do well in the tournament.

He said the match was very tough for them, adding that the team had been following the preparations of the Sudanese because they were expecting a stiff opposition from them. He said the Zambians played well, the goalkeeper was good but "we were precise in the attack and this paid off well for us and we hope to meet the Cameroonians squarely in our next match". "We know that they are not easy. We came out for a win. We stayed 10 days in Spain to work on finishing and the boys kept to that and we hope to beat Cameroon".

In the match played at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Zambia won their match against the Sudan by a three-goal margin with James Chamanga scoring an early goal when the match was only two minutes old, with James Mulenga following with the second goal in the 50th minute and Felix Katongo nailing their opponents with the third goal in the 59th minute.

Haitham Tobmal Kamal of Sudan however received the MTN Man-of-the Match award with the Samsung Fair-play award going to Ian Bakala of Zambia.