Online Reporter
Robson Sharuko
Metros Editor
THE debate around the Warriors’ AFCON show has centred on Tawanda Maswanhise.
It has been about the goals he possibly would have scored, if he had been given more game time, and the strides the team would have made.
But, the debate should be broadened to include another forward – Thando Ngwenya.
He was left out of the AFCON squad because Mario Marinica was concerned about his fitness levels.
Ngwenya actually reported for camp, which suggests he felt he could play at the AFCON, but was left out of the squad.
The Amazulu forward scored a brace on Sunday, and provided an assist, after coming in from the bench, to power Usuthu to a 3-2 win over TS Galaxy.
Junior Zindoga, the Zimbabwean forward who was at the AFCON finals, scored a beauty, in a losing cause, for TS Galaxy.
But, it was Ngwenya who grabbed the headlines with his man-of-the-match show, despite coming from the bench, in this five-goal thriller.
He has taken his tally to six goals, just one short of the leader Sede Junior Dion, of Golden Arrows, in the race for the Golden Boot in Supa Diski.
Bradley Grobler has six goals.
The big questions which should be asked now are:
- How far would the Warriors have gone at the AFCON finals if they had an attack which had Ngwenya and Maswanhise?
- How many more goals would we have scored in Morocco if these two forwards had featured prominently in our attack in all the three games we played?
- Would the Warriors not have beaten Angola, a result which would have been enough to take us into the knockout stages, for the first time in our history, if we had fielded Maswanhise and Ngwenya in our attack in that game?
- Would the Warriors not have beaten or, at worse, drawn against Bafana Bafana if a forward, with the pace and goal-scoring instincts which Ngwenya has in abundance, featured in our attack in that game?
Ngwenya was the top-scorer, and best player in the domestic Premiership, by the time he left FC Platinum to join Amazulu in the South African top-flight league.
He had scored nine goals for FC Platinum by the time he left to join Usuthu.
Mario chose not to take him to Morocco and even started the AFCON finals campaign with the man who finally won the local Golden Boot – Washington Navaya.
At least, Maswanhise was at the AFCON finals.
However, the red-hot Motherwell forward was restricted to one full game, having been restricted to a few minutes in the other one, as the Warriors crashed out in the group stages.
He scored a wonder goal, and created the other, before hitting the post in the best individual performance by a Warrior at the recent AFCON finals.
Even the CAF experts duly acknowledged that he was a fine talent and, despite playing just one full game, he was named among the three most promising footballers on the continent.
Maswanhise has continued his fine goal-scoring form at Motherwell where he has scored four goals in the four games he has played since his return from the AFCON finals.
Mathew Masinge