B-Metro Comment: We still believe in the Warriors

Zimbabwe hit the headlines around the world this January, and refreshingly so after our Warriors gave us a show to remember in their first Afcon match against Algeria.

Much of the world took note and all of a sudden people changing their earlier permutations.A� Some would say the Warriors flattered to deceive. However, we are sure what the boys displayed was potential and national pride that they had to sacrifice so much to prove to all doubting Thomases that given enough support they could achieve so much more.

We still believe in the Zimbabwean national team. This is a generation of players that could achieve a lot with enough support and well planned preparations for tournaments. It is now the all too familiar story at the Zimbabwe Football Association, poor planning and execution. Infact, the departure of the Warriors was so dramatic and unfortunate that very few expected much from the demotivated players.

However, all that seemed to change after the first game and Zimbabweans seemed to be blinded by optimism, yes, let us call it patriotism. We really felt so much pride in having a team that had endured so much but could still compete at the highest level on the continent.

What should never escape our attention is that our preparations were shoddy and no miracle should be expected in such instances.A� It is an old stubborn principle really, garbage in, garbage out. You reap what you sow. Pointing fingers all over the different departments of the squad will not help us.A� We should not be going to tournaments to observe our weaknesses so that we correct them in future but that should be corrected well before so that we go there to compete.

We need to keep the core of the team and prepare for future competitions.A� We are privileged to have somewhere to start from.A� Many may have followed Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense that lost all its players in a crash last year and had 50 days to come up with a team for a new season. They have done well, with passion and a desire to honour the departed pushing them to come up with an even stronger team.A� In our case, we have the players, the most important ingredient for our success. We would like to caution against spending too much time examining the obvious. We performed badly yes, because we prepared badly.

What we need is to motivate our players and get them into camp earlier and also address our technical abilities since the higher we go the greater the challenges. We urge that our discussions take us forward instead of dragging us back and degenerating into personal attacks that will not take us anywhere.

First it was the Mighty Warriors and now the Warriors. The world acknowledges the potential that Zimbabwe has and many wish they had the kind of players we have. Many too, wonder why we do not do well with such talent at our disposal.A� May the real administrators of the game help us transcend the stage of potential towards exposing the champions that lie in our players. We all saw it in the Algerian game, the desire, the skill and the fight for our flag.