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Ndlovu, now an assistant coach in the Warriors dressing room watched with satisfaction from the touchline as the new band of players under the captaincy of goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini showed grit and commitment which resulted in a 1-0 win over Burundi in a first round, second leg encounter at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Chief striker Knowledge Musona found the target in the 36th minute to settle a rollercoaster assignment that had seen the Warriors losing the first leg 2-1 in Bujumbura on 29 February.
Interestingly, Musona was also the provider of the important away goal in Bujumbura, the Germany-based talisman finding the target in a match in which he led the Warriors’ line of attack just hours after touching down in the Burundi capital.
The Warriors will now join 29 other nations in the hat on 5 July when the Confederation of African Football conduct the draw for the final round of qualifiers to be staged in September.
The 15 winners from the second round of matches which will be played over two legs will join hosts South Africa at the continental soccer showpiece early next year.
After a disappointing start to their 2014 World Cup campaign in which they lost 1-0 at home to Guinea and drew 0-0 with Mozambique in Maputo, coach Rahman Gumbo’s charges were under immense pressure to stem their slide and avoid an embarrassing first round elimination by Burundi.
Despite being reduced to 10 men after just 29 minutes following Willard Katsande’s expulsion, the Warriors hung onto Musona’s lead with the outstanding centre back duo of Esrom Nyandoro and Carlington Nyadombo leading the way in repelling everything that the Swallows threw at them.
On the occasions that Burundi breached the Warriors rearguard, which also included Onismor Bhasera and Oscar Machapa, they found skipper Kapini in an uncompromising mood.
Ndlovu a veteran of many Warriors battles who led his country to two Nations Cup finals spoke glowingly of the team arguing that they might not have been fashionable in the manner they won but they had shown their character and true potential.
“I think this win has put them back on the right path. I think the belief is going to come back and this could be the turning point. These are young boys who are hungry for success and the potential has always been there, they just needed to win again.
“We have good players that couldn’t deliver because of the pressure but now some of the players will come out of their shells and present themselves,” Ndlovu said.
The former Coventry, Birmingham and Sheffield United forward revealed that their instruction to the players ahead of the Burundi game was to ensure they win at all costs and he was therefore happy that the result they had wanted had been achieved.
“The boys had belief and you could see from the start that we meant business. Of course, it was sad to see Willard Katsande making that silly mistake and getting a red card.
“It is not acceptable at this level of the game and all the boys carried him out and definitely he should apologise to the team. The guys had to work overtime because of his actions but look he is a team player and that is why he was crying after being sent off.
“In terms of the game, I think the guys stuck to the game plan of getting an early goal and we had to win in whatever manner possible,” Ndlovu said.
He said the manner in which the Warriors absorbed the Burundi pressure especially in the last quarter of the game when the Swallows tried to make their numerical advantage count proved that the players had the character to withstand the heat when pinned.
“They were bombarding us in the last 10 to 15 minutes but the guys stood their ground and in the end we won the game. I think we deserve all the plaudits from the people. They were fantastic in their support, they were unbelievable but of course sometimes they didn’t stick with the team like in the last few minutes and those are the occasions when we needed them most,” he said.
Ndlovu who is also the national Under-23 coach urged Zifa not to bask in the glory of the success over Burundi and forget about the need to plan for the much tougher second round assignments.
“The draw will be in July which is just in a few weeks time. But between now and September there is ample time for us to prepare but we need to have a proper programme of preparations because we cannot leave it until the last minute again.
“We could have a plan whereby we can get these guys together starting with the locally based players so that they get used to each other and when the professionals join in, we would have covered ground and they will complement the guys,” Ndlovu said.
Online Reporter