Blue Eagles became the first team from the Premier Division to win the FDH Bank Cup after beating defending champions FCB Nyasa Big Bullets 3-2 on penalties at Bingu National Stadium on Sunday.
The area 30-based side put in an excellent performance that combined clinical counter-attacking with the defensive organization to frustrate their opponents by taking the match to penalties before sealing their memorable win.
The scale of their achievement could be measured by various statistics. Going into the final, Bullets had been undefeated in the last three cup finals, two of which they won at Sunday’s venue.
By beating Bullets, they also become the first team to stop Kalisto Pasuwa’s charges from winning the cup three times in a row.
But how was this achieved? Let’s take a look at how Eliya Kananji got the better of Pasuwa’s quadruple-winning team.
Breaking Bullets’ narrow block
Throughout the game, Bullets faced the task of breaking down Blue Eagles- initially set up a 4-4-2 and their narrow block. Lloyd Aaron dropped deep for Bullets, alongside Yankho Singo, covering and switching the play as Precious Sambani advanced from left-back.
These movements allowed Babatunde Adepoju to move with pace, supporting Ephraim Kondowe in the attack. On the right, winger Stanley Billiat also dropped out, similar to Ronald Chitiyo, as Precious Phiri advanced from full-back.
However, central access proved difficult for Bullets as Eagles’ narrow numbers protected the central spaces, minimising them from creating more goal-scoring opportunities.
Blue Eagles’ block and their front unit remained centrally compact. Chitiyo moved too deep, with Phiri supporting the deeper build. Bullets’ best play came as they accessed the wide areas, to then make narrow inside-channel runs inside of Aaron and Nickson Nyasulu.
With Billiat and Chitiyo often marked, movements from deep by Singo and Aaron were useful. Kondowe, However, was isolated, and the front line was frustrated as Bullets struggled to create meaningful chances.
Blue Eagles wingers in behind
Although Bullets only had 25 per cent of the possession in the first half, their defending was superb, resulting in wide counter-attacks from deep that carried real purpose. From their rare spells of possession, they probed for diagonal passes over Bullets’ out-of-possession 4-4-2 block, searching for their wingers, and they nearly scored a goal just before the half-hour mark when Andrew Juvinala released Micium Mhone, who later on found Schumacher Kuwali closer to the box.
The midfielder, who was mostly used as a striker, was very unfortunate as his shot hit the post.
Kananji’s men had another opportunity from yet another well-calculated counterattack when Lankeni Mwale sprinted towards Bullets’ goal before sending a dangerous cross into the box, which only needed a touch from Kuwali, but he was late to arrive, allowing Gomezgani Chirwa to make a timely clearance.
As Bullets pressed, Eagles sat back, won the ball, and launched counter-hurricane attacks, and had they been clinical enough, they would have punished Pasuwa’s men.
As well as having an extra defensive presence in midfield to frustrate Bullets, another benefit for the hosts of having no fixed centre-forward was how difficult Bullets’ centre-backs found it to be centrally marked or protected.
Kuwali, Mhone, and Mwale all rotated superbly, often drifting between Bullets’ lines and working inside of the penetrative runs made repeatedly by Laurent Banda and Gilbert Chirwa.
Pasuwa’s starting eleven and substitutions
Pasuwa added Chitiyo, Kondowe and Babatunde to his starting eleven. The twin strikers play similar football. Leaving Maxwell Phodo on the bench meant Bullets had no one to hold on to the ball when under pressure and no one to release Babatunde in attack.
On several occasions, the two strikers could fail to pass the ball to one another, opting for shooting at goal when passing to a team-mate was the best option. Facing an experienced goalkeeper in Munthali needed Bullets to play and create chances by attacking from all angles, but instead, Babatunde and Kondowe were wasting chances by sending their weaker shots at Munthali.
Had it been Phodo played, a striker who cares less about scoring than assisting his fellows to score, would have given Babatunde the much-needed freedom to roam around and possibly score a goal or two but he was only given less than 20 minutes to play.
Another mistake on the Bullets’ part was to include Chitiyo, who was just misplacing passes, never challenged for the ball and slowed down Bullets’ attack. Surprisingly, he was given 55 minutes of action for contributing less than what was supposed to be given by the midfielder.
Bullets needed ball players to unlock Eagles, but both Chikumbutso Salima, Chawanangwa Gumbo and Phodo were on the bench, and when the two were introduced in the second half, it was too late as Eagles had already worked out their game plan to take the match to penalties.
How Kananji exploited Bullets’ high line
From the opening exchanges, it was clear that Eagles were not going to be trying to dominate the match.
Kananji was content to allow Bullets to have the ball but wanted his players to be ready to exploit the opposition’s high line at any given opportunity. He wanted to utilise the pace of Mhone and Banda to run in behind Bullets’ back four.
Even though Eagles failed to score, it worked out because Pasuwa’s men were now attacking with caution, afraid of being caught off-guard by the high-pressing wingers.
Industrious full-backs
Both Juvinala and Maxwell Gustavo were asked to work incredibly hard. Their primary role was to defend against Bullets’ pacey attackers, of course, but both also took their turns to step into midfield and create an extra man for Eagles. They made sure not to allow Babatunde and Billiat to make quick and dangerous runs into the final third.
Rope-a-dope
The key to Blue Eagles’s approach was Ganizani James. Without the tall centre-back at the heart of their defence, they would not have been able to invite pressure from Bullets– they had to accept that their opponents would dominate possession.
But James made the difference and provided much more security at the back, which also helped Jacob Robert, who did not have to attack the ball. It meant they could defend in a low block and limit the space that Bullets could run into behind them. It also meant Bullets often played in front of Eagles and could not pull them out of position.
Munthali’s experience between the two sticks
The experienced shot-stopper commended his line of defence with maturity. From the word go, he was in control of everything thrown at him by Bullets. He was able to handle aerial threats; he was quick to make decisions when needed, and he made some crucial saves to keep the game at 0-0.
When his team was under intense attack from Bullets, he was able to ease the pressure by telling his defenders to calm down. Knowing how dangerous Bullets are especially in the opening 20 minutes and the last 10 minutes, Munthali made sure to keep on frustrating them until he got substituted for Joshua Waka in readiness for the shootout.
It wasn’t surprising to see Munthali walking away with the Man of the Match accolade.
Kananji’s timely introduction of Joshua Waka
The young shot-stopper was the reason why Blue Eagles beat Silver Strikers and Santhe Admarc on penalties.
On Sunday, he was called into action again, this time around, against Bullets, the undisputed champions of the cup. The goalkeeper, with so much confidence, stood up and made two important saves to inspire his team to a memorable win.
He saved Precious Phiri’s penalty, but the most important one was his save to deny Babatunde from converting his spot-kick. Had he scored, it was now anyone’s game but his save made sure that all was well for the area 30-based side.
