Blatter praises Warriors

From Lawrence Moyo in CAPE TOWN, South Africa
FIFA president Sepp Blatter congratulated Ian Gorowa after watching 10-man Warriors restrict Nigeria to a 1-0 victory in a CHAN third-place playoff at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
With Masimba Mambare getting his marching orders in the 16th minute of the game, the Warriors kept Nigeria at bay until the 85th minute when a lapse of concentration allowed Christian Obiozor to snatch the winner for the Super Eagles.

After the match Blatter, who was a guest of honour for the tournament’s last day, told Gorowa that he had been impressed by the Warriors’ display.

“Blatter told me that he had been impressed by our performance. He actually said he believed Zimbabwe were the most impressive team at CHAN, singling out the game against Nigeria given that we were reduced to 10 men early in the first half and held on until the last five minutes.

“He said he was impressed by the fact that despite being one man down we were actually going forward in search of a goal, which was surprising to him. He said he didn’t know that Zimbabwe could put up such performances. So he was saying I should keep up the good work,” Gorowa said.

Gorowa says he will use Blatter’s compliments to inspire the team in their 2015 AFCON qualifying campaign.
He believes the CHAN tournament helped him get an idea of how his Nations Cup squad will be composed saying the era where foreign-based players dominated the squad is over.

“For me the compliment was good, it shows how far we have gone as a nation. We had no hope and now we can build on this.
“The game against Nigeria was very close. If you look, the boy got a red card after 16 minutes and I spoke to the referee about the red card. He said the book says it was a red card, which is fine. But if everything was done to the book, how many would remain on the field of play?

“There are times where the ref has to use his discretion and on that incident, which I watched again on TV, Masimba’s eyes were on the ball. He wasn’t looking at the goalkeeper until the very last minute and the impact made it look bad.

“The intent was to win the ball. So my argument was that the red card had killed the game. So we had to readjust. Remember our strength has always been our defence so we just had to re-adjust and possibly catch them on the break.

“But I must say the boys defended solidly but in the end they got tired. Remember they had played 120 minutes in the semi-final and it was more or less the same line-up. In the end they got tired and just that lapse in concentration allowed them to score that goal.
“For me that was very painful because I was already looking at penalties, which I thought we deserved after the way we played. I was confident of doing well in the shootout. That’s what made it disappointing,” said Gorowa.

Despite being a man down, Gorowa resisted the temptation of making early changes and they actually gave in after the introduction of substitutes.

“The guys were tired and their levels were getting low and low, so I needed fresh pairs of legs to finish off the game. Otherwise we had done well by just re-arranging ourselves soon after that red card and it worked very well that we didn’t need to rush into changes.
“Our defence was still intact and so was the midfield and just the one striker, so it was ok.”

Ajax Cape Town-bound Simba  Sithole made it easy for the coaches as he performed heroically as a lone striker. He was a constant thorn in the flesh for the Nigeria defence and this frustrated their plans to maximize on the numerical advantage they had.

The former How Mine striker needed more than one defender at any given time and this virtually deprived Nigeria of their one-man advantage.

Kuda Mahachi’s counter-attacking, especially in the second half also worked in the Warriors’ favour and they managed to contain a Nigeria side that had been scoring for fun early in the tournament – the highlight being coming from 3-0 at halftime to beat Morocco 4-3 in the quarter-finals.

Gorowa refused to single out individual players for a good tournament.
“I can’t single out any individual players for special mention. In terms of teamwork we were the best team in the tournament. Our play was not built around an individual, it was all about teamwork. We worked as a group and each player selected played according to the task. That is what took us that far.”

“The most important thing for us is to keep this team intact. At least now they understand the philosophy of how to play football and the bigger picture now is to qualify for AFCON 2015, building around this team.

“It is very, very important. We wanted to see where we are and we have shown that we are up there and if we add the other professionals and they fit in with the philosophy we can be successful.

“In the past it used to be the local players fitting into a squad of foreign-based professionals but now it’s the locals and then the professionals joining in. If you look at that (CHAN) squad you can go to war with most of them.

“But obviously you will need three, four additions of the professionals but again they showed they can hold their own. I was very happy and as a nation also we should be happy because we are starved of success and this is work in progress which promises greater things to come.

“It’s a project we should continue with at least until after the AFCON 2015. I hope everyone supports this project and we will be exactly where we want our football to be.”

The Warriors are expected back in Harare tonight and Zifa yesterday urged fans to throng the Harare International Airport and give the team a “heroes’ welcome’’.

Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela said Gorowa and his men had done the nation proud and their feat at the CHAN tournament deserved to be honoured by the football family and the nation at large.

“The association will host a party for them. We appeal to the football fraternity and the nation to come in their large numbers and give our boys a heroic welcome.

“The boys demonstrated indefatigable energy and showed that they are a force to reckon with. They have made history in three decades,’’ Gwesela said.

Gwesela also said the Warriors would be given a share of the US$250 000 they earned for reaching the semi-finals.
“I can also confirm that they are going to get a handsome share of the prize money. We also appeal to the corporate world to chip in and partner the association,’’ Gwesela said.