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A defeat will all but ended Zimbabwe’s interests in the qualifying battles for a place in Brazil next year while a draw, which would be a good result in the current circumstances, will keep open a little window that, if a number of results in the last three games go our way, we can squeeze through.
A win for the Warriors dramatically alters the landscape and will push them just two points behind the Pharaohs, with a home game against the Egyptians on the way, and it will blow the group wide open.
That the Warriors are in a very difficult position, already trailing the Pharaohs by five points after two games of a six-game qualifying battle, isn’t questionable but the point remains that they are not out of the race and, as long as they still have their destiny in their hands, they need to battle long and hard to try and make their dream come true.
We are going into this battle on the back foot because of a number of reasons, the chief one being that our morale is not at its highest after just picking one point from our two games and, crucially, falling at the final hurdle, in Angola last year, when we had appeared to be in control of our 2013 Nations Cup campaign.
We also have a new coach, whose limitations in African football are clear because he has never been exposed to this kind of terrain while taking charge of a national football team, and it’s very clear that Dieter-Klaus Pagels is a rookie, at this level of the game, and needs more time to adjust to its demands.
Injuries have also played a big part, in weakening out side, and some of the key players that Pagels had targeted for this encounter are not in Alexandria because they could not recover in time to take their places in this battle.
We face an Egyptian side that has concentrated all its football efforts, during a very difficult time for the game in that North African country where matters of the revolution have taken their toll on the sport with matches being disrupted on a regular basis, on making sure they qualify for the next World Cup.
They have drafted in about a dozen of their players who play in foreign countries, where football hasn’t been affected by political issues unravelling at home, and if we needed a warning about their pedigree, the 10-0 massacre of Swaziland in their last international friendly in Alexandria on Friday night, should have served that.
Pagels has invested his trust in young and emerging players, giving the captaincy to 20-year-old former Dynamos talisman, Denver Mukamba, and overlooking a number of veterans as he lays what he believes to be the foundation of a strong and competitive Warriors squad.
He has been criticised, in some quarters, for either taking such a huge assignment lightly or merely out of depth with the quality of players at our disposal, but whether there is any substance in such criticism will be seen by how his troops respond to the challenge when they plunge into the real battle.
We agree with those who say that our Warriors needed an overhaul, especially against a background of the negativity that stalked their brand in the aftermath of the Asiagate match-fixing saga, but there should be limits to which national pride can be sacrificed in the name of rebuilding given that a number of such rebuilding exercises haven’t yielded anything in the past.
We don’t agree with those who believe that the World Cup should be used as an avenue to rebuild national teams, no matter where you coming from, and if we can field a team that has Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat, Ovidy Karuru and Washington Arubi, we cannot continue to hide behind a shield of rebuilding when they are the core of whatever national side we can field.
Rather we should encourage these Warriors to go out there and play with the confidence that a positive result can be earned, even in a place like Egypt, and they should try to seize the initiative and come out of this contest with something, in terms of points, to show for their efforts.
The last competitive game that the Egyptians played at home, a Nations Cup qualifier against the Central African Republic which the visitors won 3-2, should give us that encouragement that teams can go into the Land of the Pharaohs and come out with a good result.
The Egyptians have failed to reach the last two Nations Cup finals and while that doesn’t certainly tell the story of a spectacular decline, it shows that they can be challenged and beaten and there is no reason why our Warriors should approach this game with a negative mindset.
Results from around the continent, this weekend in World Cup qualifiers, showed that teams can go into the lions’ den and come out with a positive result and Kenya held African champions Nigeria in their backyard while Mozambique, who are in our group, battled to a goalless draw against Guinea.
The Pharaohs might control our group, which they lead after winning their first two games, but nothing can be taken for granted and if Mozambique went there, and were narrowly beaten 0-2 last year, we should take that as part of our motivational lessons to our boys that, with determination and focus, they can do even better.
There is no reason for us to read too much into the Pharaohs’ 10-0 destruction of Swaziland in a friendly international on Friday because we are better than Sihlangu and this is a pressure situation, far different from a friendly match, and when stakes are high, anything is possible, which gives us a window of hope.
The Warriors need to blow life into their 2014 World Cup campaign and this is one game where they can draw the line and it is important for our men in Alexandria to stand up and be counted and fortune has always favoured the brave.
Online Reporter