B-Metro Comment: The pain of supporting the Warriors

THE Zimbabwe Warriors did the nation proud a fortnight ago at the Council of Southern African Football AssociationsAï¿½ (Cosafa) tournament in South Africa where the boys came home with the top prize.

There were celebrations from all walks of life in the country and for the first time in a long time, the Republic agreed on one thing aï¿½ï¿½ the Warriors were on a come back trail.

Then came qualifiers for the African Nations Championship (Chan) a tournament for locally-based players featuring in their own countryaï¿½ï¿½s domestic leagues and as Cosafa Kings, who were Namibia in our eyes?

A simple walkover we thought and BAM! We were brought back to life aï¿½ï¿½ just like a drug addict feeling withdrawal symptoms, the country is still in pain after back-to-back or should I say aï¿½?home and awayaï¿½? losses to Namibia to keep us out ofAï¿½ Chan.

Although not taken seriously by some, Cosafa and Chan have in the past exposed our players to scouts from other leagues.

Numerous players have been snatched by teams from countries such as South Africa by just showing skill in one or two games. Even Ovidy Karuru now playing in South Africaaï¿½ï¿½s First Division gave a good account of himself at the Cosafa with the hope of bouncing back to top leagues.

As such, the selected players for the Chan tournament knew what their exploits rode on. In one publication some players vowed that they were prepared to aï¿½?die on the pitchaï¿½? for Zimbabwe to reverse the 1-0 defeat to Namibia away.

Even betting companies (book makers) were paying more money for a Namibian win, that was the common logic, aï¿½?the Warriors would simply w-i-naï¿½?.

Today, the players are alive and we lost aï¿½ï¿½ not that we want them dead but now they are apologising for the loss.

Thanks to the Warriors, they just reminded us how miserable the life of a football supporter can be. For some die hard Warriors fans, an all familiar story on the day they went down to Namibia reads like:

Getting home and oneaï¿½ï¿½s wife knowing the result laughs at you aï¿½?ha haaï¿½? and then you look at her as if she had said, aï¿½?your sister is a ***aï¿½?.

Football fans have zero tolerance for such yet they know the result could have gone either way. Itaï¿½ï¿½s a pain in the most embarrassing part of a human body.

At this point itaï¿½ï¿½s better to look at Facebook posts of your ex-girlfriend who married a better guy than to read newspaper reports about what went wrong during the match. .