adminPetros uttered these sentiments soon after his Midlands side’s exit in the semi-finals of the National Youth Games at Chipadze yesterday.
Midlands were the defending champions of the boys’ soccer at the games but their hopes of defending their title came to an abrupt end after going down 65 on penalties to a disciplined Bulawayo Metropolitan Province.
The match had ended 2-2 in normal time and Bulawayo will now meet Mashonaland West who beat Mashonaland East 2-1 in the other semi-final, with the finals set for today at Chipadze.
Interestingly, in the last editions of the Youth Games Bulawayo lost to Midlands in the same stages and they have done justice to revenge this time around and Petros feels it’s healthy for the development of football in our country.
“We beat them last year at the same stage and they have beaten us which means our football is progressing well because other teams are coming up with strong teams to challenge and defeat the champions,” said Petros.
“There were no big names in this year’s tournament which is a good sign for the game because it means people are identifying new talent in their provinces to represent them”.
Petros who is now coaching Central Region Division one side Silo United feels there is a lot of talent in our country but lack of proper junior structures is making it hard for continuity because there is no coordination in these junior teams.
“We really need to dig deep in the development of our grassroots football. Such tournaments like these expose and develop talent but surprisingly we might not see any of these youngsters in the near future.
“There is no link between our junior teams from the Under-17 to the Under-23, we only assemble a team when there is a tournament and if we keep on running our football like that we will not go anywhere.
“There is need for Zifa to put their house in order because so much is happening. We can’t talk of the World Cup when there is no order in our house, we can only dream of going there.
“The Asiagate have been there for quite a while and there don’t seem to be any progress and it hurts because players who are supposed to lead the team are jeopardising coach’s plans because they are suspended.
“The more they take long the more they drag the team into the mud and there is need for urgent conclusion to the whole issue,” added Petros.
Petros made a name for himself at Lachashire Steel before he joined South African giants Kaizer Chiefs in 1999 and stayed there for four years.
After leaving Kaizer Chiefs, Petros joined Dynamos across the Limpopo and after one year at his club he was involved in a car accident and fractured his foot which marked the end of his successful career.
In 2005, Petros worked as assistant coach to Moses Chunga at Shabanie Mine and currently apart from being Silo United coach; he is also an assistant to Patridge Muskwe at the Under-14 national team alongside Kingstone Rinemhota.
Meanwhile Bulawayo girls’ soccer team will meet Harare in today’s final after dismissing Matebeleland South 20 while Harare beat hosts Mashonaland Central 2-0 with young Eunice Chibanda scoring both goals.
On the medal standings as of yesterday afternoon, Masvingo Province overtook Midlands at the top with five gold medals, one silver and one bronze with Bulawayo coming second having amassed four gold, five silver and one bronze.
Harare have found this year’s going tough as they are on sixth place with one gold, two silver and three bronze while Manicaland picked their first set of medals at the this year’s games when Spencer Makuvaza and Edith Viriri came second in the man’s 1 500m and javelin respectively.
Online Reporter