Wenslus Murape
ZIMBABWE football giants Dynamos will be hoping to stay in the CAF Confederation Cup after a heroic performance against Zesco United of Zambia in the opening preliminary round.
A goalless draw in Zambia on Saturday earned Dynamos a hard fought 1-0 aggregate win over a tough opponent.
Zimbabwe champions, Ngezi Platinum suffered a painful exit in DRC yesterday as they went down 4-3 on penalties against AS Maniema yesterday following a second goalless draw yesterday.
Ngezi Platinum’s disappointment is on two fronts as they bow out without scoring a goal in both legs despite investing in strikers as they prepared for their inaugural CAF Champions League campaign while losing on penalties is always a sad way to bow out.
Both Dynamos and Ngezi Platinum were resolute in defence and struggled somewhat when going forward, a crisis that extends to other teams in the Premier Soccer League.
The other disappointment for both clubs is that they were forced to play both legs away from Zimbabwe and might have been affected by this scenario.
While Dynamos still have a shout in the CAF Confederation Cup campaign, Ngezi Platinum are now back to focus on the Castle Lager Premiership and the Chibuku Super Cup.
But their troubles in fulfilling the preliminary round was a reminder to stakeholders that it is important for there to be CAF-approved venues in Zimbabwe for the benefit of the national teams and clubs like Dynamos and Ngezi Platinum.
The Warriors start their campaign for the 2025 AFCON qualifiers in a fortnight but they will be using a Ugandan facility as their home ground in a very tough match against Cameroon, which should have been in Zimbabwe.
It is the same situation in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying campaign in which the Warriors were forced to host Nigeria in Rwanda, surrendering the crucial home advantage that might have influenced or inspired victory for the boys.
As things stand, the Warriors will need a miracle to progress in the World Cup and it can be blamed on the lack of home advantage.
It is therefore encouraging that there are some positives coming out of the plans to upgrade the National Sports Stadium to meet the minimum CAF requirements.
The SRC last week gave an update on the state of the stadium and even gave a December 2024 deadline for its availability.
About 15 000 bucket seats will have been installed by then among other urgent needs at the National Sports Stadium, a majority of which are being attended to right now.
Once the National Sports Stadium is available then the fortunes of all representative teams will change for the better.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter