It was a heavy blow not only to Patrick Mabedi’s hopes of keeping his job intact, but also to Malawi’s hopes of returning to an African prestigious tournament.
Malawi will have to travel to Mali to face Burkina Faso but odds are against them to grind results, another defeat will likely put the coach’s job under threat.
Just when it seemed as if Malawi kicked off their campaign in the African Cup of Nations Qualifiers with a point, a big damage occurred.
Faces down, “coach must go” rumbles. A defeat that was arguably caused by the coach as his players made individual errors. Burundi snatched a late 86th-minute winner which in the end, they deserved.
“Very bad result, the play was not good, we were not ourselves to be honest, and the combination was not good at the back.
“We could not coordinate very well, sometimes it is difficult just to practice things, we were struggling in terms of defence in terms of combination to go forward.
“You could see other goals we gave away. We need to take it and move on, no need to complain. It was not what we planned, we had a bad game. If you don’t prepare, this is the result,” said Mabedi.
The team scored two goals, the team swallowed three goals. Mabedi’s post-match reaction was contrary to how the game unfolded.
A defensive set-up haunted the team
Internet sources say that Dennis Chembezi’s last competitive match was in June when Flames lost 1-0 to Equatorial Guinea, he was in the heart of defence on Thursday partnering with Nixon Mwase.
It was a lackluster performance for the home side as they failed to record a back-to-back win at home.
Mabedi’s men would hope to end the way they started. It was a promising start to the game by the hosts who invited Burundi’s defence to the task.
Lanjesi Nkhoma, Yamikani Chester and Mphasi combined before the latter fired his effort against the body of the defender.
Exchanging passes within the first defensive line wasn’t a model of play that Malawians would demand, they were at home.
Burundi were absorbing Malawi’s pressure before catching them on the break. Jean Girumugisha agonizingly his effort over the bar after beating two players.
Wasteful in the first minutes of the game, shaky towards the end of the game.
Patrick Mabedi is not responsible for the timing of the team’s camping, but having one training session was inevitable, Burundi too didn’t have enough time to prepare for the game.
Malawi cannot discount this as an aberration. They have suffered two defeats in their last three games and both defeats this year have been reminiscent of losses last in previous years and the buck stops with a coach the new leadership was reluctant to keep.
Malawi instead of vomiting first, they swallowed first as Chimwemwe Idana turned to his own goal from failing to clear a corner-kick.
The coach can get the blame for the defeat, but the two teams also differ in the quality of players.
Matteo Nkuruzinza started in goals, he plays for RWG Molebeek in Belgium, Shaban Hussein plays for AS Kigali in Rwanda, Jean Giramugisha plays for Al Hilal in South Sudan, Saidi Ntibazonzika plays for Simba SC in Tanzania, Yousouf Ndayishimiye plays for Nice FC in France Tresor Mossi plays for SumQayit in Azerbaijan just to mention a few. It wasn’t a thin line that separated the two teams.
Though scorelines favoured the visitors at the break, Malawi won stats. Malawi scored just one goal with five shots on target, 6 corners and 11 shots in total against Burundi’s 1, 1 and 5 respectively.
After the visitors took the lead, Malawi fought back to level up scores and Chawangwa Kaonga’s free-kick deflected off the human wall to beat Nkuruzinza.
The team waned out as Burundi restored their lead just five minutes later as Jean Giramugisha tapped home a very beautiful ball from the right after a team move.
Lloyd Banega Aaron got a 7.0 rating from Flashscore, marking him the third better Flames player in the game behind Yamikani Chester and Chawangwa Kaonga.
However, playing him deeper in a single pivot midfield was an advantage to the visitors. Chimwemwe Idana was number 8, Nkhoma was number 10 in an unrecognizable formation, whether 4-4-2 or 4-2-4- or 4-3-3 or 3-5-2.
The loads were too heavy for Banega. The distance between players in midfield was big. He is not that kind of midfielder who can dictate the game by playing long passes.
His mistake allowed the visitors to find a space into the attacking third before sitting Stanley Sanudi down but the effort rattled inside of the post early in the second half.
The parallels with the annus horribilis extended to the crowd’s reaction to a substitution. Patrick Mabedi made his first substitution, Robert Saizi and Patrick Mwaungulu came on for Yamikani Chester and Chimwemwe Idana, fans protested.
“[Yamikani] Chester had a grand game, tactically you could see when he gets the ball he goes inside and loses it, or ends up failing to give Lanjesi which means we overloaded one side.
“We looked at the technical way…that’s why we changed by putting somebody. Also he started to be tired, so we looked at if we had crosses we can utilize and get a goal,” responded Mabedi when pressed on hooking off Costol De Sol’s attacker.
Four minutes later, Patrick Mwangulu had his impact felt in the game. “He is not a player to watch the game from the bench,” screamed supporters.
The two players who have just signed for TP Mazembe, combined to bring parity. Lanjesi Nkhoma pounced on Mwaungulu’s cross to head the ball against the grass before it hit the back of the net.
Mwaungulu nearly grabbed the third goal for Malawi but his effort agonizingly missed the right post of Nkuruzinza. Malawi looked likely to snatch the winner but Burundi did as Gome and his Goalkeeper, George Chikooka failed to communicate properly.
Left-back experimentation continues at Flames
From his squad call-up, he shut supporters and journalists during one of his pre-match interviews. “If you are an engineer, be an engineer.”
His 28-man squad had only one left back, Precious Sambani who also watched the game from the bench seeing someone struggling to do what he knows better.
Sambani was one of the best performing players when FCB Nyasa Big Bullets beat Zambia’s Champions Red Arrows in the first leg of the Caf Champions League Preliminary Round, but Mabedi says Malawi doesn’t have left backs.
“We have a problem in this country, we don’t have left backs, you could see we have Tatenda M’balaka injured, we don’t have anyone who we can train with just a day, we thought of somebody who played in that position, so we saw Gome played at Afcon before and was doing well at the left, that was the reason we played him there,” he said.
Mabedi named three Right Backs in his squad and One Left back. From 2021 to date, 8 players have been experimented in that position.
Precious Sambani, Gomezgani Chirwa, Dan Chimbalanga, Mark Fodya, Joseph Balakasi, Wisdom Mpinganjira , Alick Lungu, Tatenda M’balaka all have played at least a game for the National Team.
Out of three goals that Malawi conceded, two of them came from the left back position. Something to think about.
