dyton mupawaenda
SO, we now know the opposition we will face for a return to the AFCON finals next year.
We missed the last Nations Cup finals in Cote d’Ivoire because we were not allowed to take part in the qualifiers because of the FIFA suspension.
It meant that we could not make it four AFCON finals in a row after we had qualified for the 2017, 2019 and 2021 finals of the tournament.
It was our best run, in terms of qualifying for the biggest football festival on the continent, and we were the best performing team in Southern Africa.
Both our main rivals in this part of the continent, South Africa and Zambia, struggled during this period.
Zambia, who won this tournament in 2012, failed to qualify for the 2017, 2019 and 2021 finals and only returned for the 2023 Nations Cup.
For us, it was clear we were making good progress and the target was now not about just qualifying for the tournament but also making it to the knock-out stages of the event.
However, the FIFA suspension disrupted all that and we now have to start afresh to try and return to the AFCON finals.
We marked our return to international football by playing in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers where, after a promising start, with two points against Rwanda and Nigeria, away from home, we lost our way in South Africa by losing to Lesotho and Bafana Bafana.
But, the reality is that our best shot was to try and first return to the AFCON finals instead of chasing a World Cup dream, which as always going to be difficult to secure, especially considering we are not playing our matches at home.
We now know that we have to play Cameroon, Kenya and Namibia to qualify for the next Nations Cup finals.
It’s not going to be an easy task but we should dream big and the first thing we should do is to ensure that we complete the renovations at the National Sports Stadium so that we can win our rights to play on our own turf.
In football, playing at home matters and we call upon authorities to ensure that by the time the qualifiers get underway our Warriors will have a home for their matches.
We know that Cameroon will start as favourites but football is changing and there is no need for us to fear them.
We have played Kenya twice in the past few months and, on both occasions, they have beaten us but friendly matches and COSAFA matches are different from the real deal of the Nations Cup qualifiers.
Namibia have been improving but on our day we know we should always be better than them.
Hopefully, those in charge of our football will also appoint a substantive coach so that he can start working on these big games.
Surely, it’s unacceptable that we still don’t have a substantive coach of the Warriors.
Online Reporter