{"id":2723,"date":"2021-07-17T12:14:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T11:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2021-07-17T12:14:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T11:14:11","slug":"bankers-hangover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/07\/17\/bankers-hangover\/","title":{"rendered":"Bankers\u2019 Hangover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar at the Nkoloma Stadium, Lusaka \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 25th<\/sup> 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Worst<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Zanaco, currently chasing Champions\u2019 League football next season delivered a performance coach, Chris Kaunda, described as \u2018the worst of the season.\u2019 He was not wrong. A 4-0 defeat at home against Buildcon is a bitter pill to swallow. However, the spectre of poor officiating reared it head again with bad calls for offside \u2013 the calls going against Zanaco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It started badly by conceding a first minute goal. Ghanaian midfielder, Abbas Najeeb opened Buildcon\u2019s account. Less than ten minutes later Buildcon doubled their advantage through former Forrest Rangers midfielder, George Chisha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bankers failed to cut the deficit and trailed 0-2 at half time. Whatever Kaunda said at half time appeared to have made little impression. Striker Conlyde Luchanga scored the third from the left of the area to the opposite corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly afterwards Zanaco\u2019s consolation was wrongly denied by the assistant referee\u2019s flag. It was a terrible call by the assistant referee. He was in the wrong position and only seemed to see the scorer\u2019s position after the rebound. It was clearly onside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That summed up Zanaco\u2019s afternoon. Such decisions cost jobs and is happening too often in top level Zambian football. But it got even worse. Former Nakambala Leopards striker, Patrick Ngoma added a fourth after 77 minutes, although there was yet another question mark over offside \u2013 where\u2019s the VAR when it is needed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Mountain to Climb<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite the awful showing, Kaunda believes that he can still turn it around. He made no excuses for the performance but remains confident that he remains the right man to take Zanaco forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains to be seen if the Bankers will give him time, especially with Buildcon, high on confidence, breathing down their neck, four points adrift although Zanaco have a game in hand. Red Arrows due to play relegation threatened defending champions Nkana in the second of this afternoon\u2019s double-header also trail Zanaco by 4 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buildcon have a possible nine points up for grabs \u2013 they can only secure second place at best. Zanaco are not mathematically out of the race for the title. but Zesco United must be favourites to regain the title \u2013 they have an eight-point cushion with two games in hand on Zanaco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar at the Nkoloma Stadium, Lusaka \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 25th 2021) The Worst Zanaco, currently chasing Champions\u2019 League football next season delivered a [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,14,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2724,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions\/2724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}