Online Reporter
Howard Musonza in Marrakech, Morocco, Zimpapers Sports Hub Editor
THE hardest part of Zimbabwe’s Afcon exit is not the journey home.
It is that this team stood close enough to feel the door before it closed.
They were not passengers in Group B.
They were not overwhelmed.
They were not hiding from the contest.
They played. They scored. They competed. And still, their tournament ended in Marrakesh.
For a country that has waited more than two decades to see its senior men advance beyond the group stages at the Africa Cup of Nations, this campaign carried a different weight. Zimbabwe did not drift through matches hoping to survive. They took the game to Egypt. They chased Angola until a draw felt insufficient. They stood toe-to-toe with South Africa in a derby shaped by history, proximity, and consequence.
Across three matches, the Warriors scored every time. They came from behind more than once. They stayed in games long after momentum had shifted away from them.
That matters.
What also matters is that mistakes followed them to the very end.
Against Egypt, control slipped late. Against Angola, chances came without the finish. Against South Africa, belief rose twice and was answered twice, before one decisive moment tilted the night for good.
This is usually the point where blame enters the conversation. Where names are isolated and replayed until they harden into symbols.
This exit deserves something more honest.
Zimbabwe did not fall because they were unprepared. They fell because football is unforgiving to teams still learning how to manage moments when belief meets pressure.
The burden of that truth landed on the captain.
Marvelous Nakamba did not deflect it. He did not hide behind collective language or circumstance. He spoke plainly and took responsibility.
“I just want to say sorry. I just have to man up and accept the mistake that I did. And I’m sorry to the country, to my teammates, to everyone involved,” he said.
There was no attempt to soften the moment.
“We lose as a team. Hopefully we soldier on and learn from the mistakes. It’s life.”
That word returned again and again. Life. Not excuses. Not injustice. Just acceptance.
Nakamba could have pointed elsewhere. He chose not to.
“The future is bright,” he said. “The guys showed that we can do something. If you check the youngsters, they were on it. They give everything.”
That assessment was borne out on the pitch.
This tournament revealed something Zimbabwe have not always carried at this stage, depth beyond survival. Young players did not shrink when the stakes rose. They asked for the ball. They made mistakes. They also made things happen.
No performance illustrated that more clearly than Tawanda Masvanhise’s display against South Africa.
Before the match, he spent long moments walking with coach Marian Marinica, the coach’s hand resting on his shoulder as they spoke. Masvanhise had barely featured in the earlier games. There had been questions about timing and selection.
Marinica trusted the moment.
“He has a bright future,” the coach said. “The boy is starting to mature now and he starts becoming mentally strong and understanding that actually he has to work hard and put to practise what we try to do in training.”
There was strategy behind the choice.
“We wanted him to be a little bit of a hidden gem for this match. We needed something fresh. Something different.”
Masvanhise responded. He scored. He hit the post. He forced defenders into hurried decisions. On another night, the outcome might have been differently.
“He needs to play at a much higher level than he actually plays at the moment,” Marinica said. “If he does that, he will be one of the stars of Zimbabwe.”
This is where the focus now shifts.
Zimbabwe’s problem at this Afcon was not effort. It was not organisation. It was not belief. It lived in the narrow space between performance and control, between creating chances and closing games.
Marinica has been in charge for just over a month. He inherited a side that had not scored in four matches. He leaves one that found the net in every game in Morocco.
“I’m proud,” he said. “In a very short period of time we managed to change a team from not scoring any goals into a team that scores in every match and creates lots of chances.”
Pride and disappointment sit side by side in that reflection.
“Probably if you look at every single match we could have won. But somehow individual mistakes cost us.”
Then came the line that should guide what comes next.
“People shouldn’t be hard on the players that make mistakes. Everyone in their daily life makes mistakes.”
At this level, the difference is exposure. Errors live publicly and linger longer.
So what now.
This team should not be dismantled. It should not retreat into silence. It should not be frozen by regret.
There is a core here. Masvanhise. Chirewa. Chakuchichi. Mauchi. Others still emerging at home. There are experienced heads who steadied this group when it wavered. There is a structure beginning to take shape.
“These players have to be the backbone of Chan, the backbone of Cosafa, the backbone of the next big team,” Marinica said. “We need to start building from that.”
That is the responsibility now.
Not to re-write Morocco as failure. Not to pretend, progress arrives on demand.
But to accept that Zimbabwe reached the edge, felt its weight, and learnt where growth must come from.
They leave Afcon without qualification. They also leave knowing they belonged.
