adminDefender basks in Young Warriors glory
Ray Bande Senior Sports Reporter
YOUNG Liberty Chakoroma believes the best moment in his promising career so far came when he remained resolute in the heart of the history-making Young Warriors’ defence away in Yaoundé on Sunday.
Chakoroma was part of coach Calisto Pasuwa’s gallant troops that returned home at dawn on Tuesday after bravely fighting for a 1-1 draw with the Lions to eliminate the four-time All-Africa Games champions 2-1 on aggregate.
In qualifying for the continental games, the Young Warriors ended 21 years of waiting to represent Zimbabwe at the All-Africa Games with Wieslaw Grabowski’s 1995 silver medallists having been the last class to take part in the competition on home soil.
And just like his coach Pasuwa, who singled out the Young Warriors’ All-Africa Games qualifying showdown with Cameroon in Yaoundé as the most bruising battle of his coaching career, young Liberty thinks their performance was simply exceptional.
The 21-year-old lanky Buffaloes’ centre-back was on national duty the entire 90 minutes in Yaoundé, twinning Chicken Inn Lawrence Mhlanga in defence before Mhlanga got injured resulting in Chakoroma and Dynamos’ Blessing Moyo pairing in the Young Warriors’ defence for the remainder of the match.
“I think I played well together with my teammates. The good thing is that we managed to tell one another as players that this is the time to market ourselves.
“We told ourselves as players that this is the time to be recognised as players for the future national team and we did just that. We also managed to achieve what we wanted because of the coaches who instilled confidence in us by reminding us that this was our chance to shine. By the time we got onto the field of play we were fully confident that we would humiliate our hosts in their own backyard,” he said.
That Pasuwa was forced to travel with an under-strength side after local and foreign clubs declined to release their best players, few gave the Young Warriors a chance to defend the 1-0 advantage they had secured in the reverse fixture at home a fortnight before the Yaoundé battle.
While the Young Warriors were struggling for players, Cameroon were beefing up their squad by bringing a host of foreign-based professionals and made eight changes to the team that started the first leg at Rufaro where skipper Wisdom Mutasa’s solitary strike handed Zimbabwe their slight advantage.
Apart from travelling with a depleted squad, it emerged that cash-strapped ZIFA sent the Young Warriors into battle without any allowances at all, leaving the coach and his technical crew with having to find other ways to help motivate their charges and retain their focus on the big mission.
As if to test their character and resilience in the face of adversity, the Young Warriors had to grapple with injuries of two key players during the game and questionable officiating that has become synonymous with continental football whenever teams play away.
Lanky Chakoroma noted that they knew they would be subjected to biased match officiating and when the match officials started making deliberate unfair calls, the Young Warriors remained cool, calm and collected. “Our coaches had emphasised on biased match officiating during our preparations and we were aware that it was going to happen. When the match officials started making deliberate unfair calls, we remained cool, calm and collected.
“We kept focusing on our aim and the aim was to secure a place in the All Africa Games finals. We never allowed ourselves to be demoralised by the match officials’ cruel decisions, especially when we scored our first goal but it was disallowed. We kept fighting for the result that we wanted and we got it,” added Chakoroma.
This year’s edition of the All Africa Games marks the 50th anniversary of the Games, as well as their return to Brazzaville, which hosted the first edition in 1965.
The Games are set for September 4-19, 2015 in Brazzaville.
Online Reporter