Rainford Kalaba targets 2018 World Cup – supersport

Zambia captain Rainford Kalaba says qualification to the 2018 World in Russia Cup is Chipolopolo’s prime objective.

Kalaba said that his team had resolved just after their early group stage exit from the 2015 Africa Cup, to make it priority number one to have a successful World Cup qualifying run when the race in the Africa zone commences this October.

“After we came back from Equatorial Guinea, we met and went through a lot of issues with the coach and some of the guys who are not here,” Kalaba said after inspiring Zambia to a 2-0 home win over Rwanda in friendly on Sunday in Lusaka.

“We made one important benchmark in light of our performance at the Africa Cup and we told ourselves that we need to consolidate our team.

“We have one target to qualify to the World Cup. We have been to the Africa Cup so many times so we are now working on building a team to qualify to the World Cup for the first time in Zambia’s history.”

The 2012 African champions have failed to qualify to the World Cup in twelve attempts.

Draws for the Africa zone qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup will be made on July 25 in Saint Petersburg in Russia.