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ZIMBABWE officially resumed international football last week in Rwanda when they took on the hosts in a 2026 Fifa World Cup Group C qualifier.
The game ended goalless, a point that started off disappointing but became valuable when Rwanda beat an overconfident South Africa 2-0 at the same venue.
While the outspoken Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos blamed the defeat on what he deemed a poor pitch, the Warriors had their own challenges to blame for not collecting maximum points on November 15.
The Warriors’ performance improved in the second match four days later at the same venue against group favourites Nigeria in a match that ended 1-1. Collecting a point against Nigeria is a good result on paper although the Warriors and fans were disappointed by the number of wasted opportunities towards the end of the game.
Teenage Hadebe and second half substitutes Divine Lunga and Tanaka Shandirwa had very good chances to snatch victory late in the game and basing on the players’ own reactions, they could not believe they missed.
Two points from two matches in unfamiliar territory on a return to the international stage was decent for interim coach Baltemar Brito and his technical team.
The two matches in Rwanda provided useful lessons for the Zifa Normalisation Committee and football stakeholders.
A look at the venue, Huye Stadium, shows that Zimbabwe can easily have stadiums that meet the minimum requirements set by Fifa via the Confederation of African Football.
That such a small venue is better than all our traditional football venues was embarrassing but also a lesson that meeting the minimum CAF requirements is not so complicated nor costly.
Either Rufaro or the National Sports Stadium should be available in time for the resumption of qualifiers next year. We clearly do not have excuses and the good thing is government is committed to ensuring that the Warriors have a home venue as soon as possible.
Apart from helping the Warriors prepare properly, it also takes Zimbabwe away from negative attention which was witnessed last week.
In a press conference ahead of his team’s match at home to Benin, Broos said he would want teams like Zimbabwe banned from qualifiers for not having venues that meet CAF’s minimum requirements.
As of last week, CAF had banned about 17 nations from playing home games in the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with Lesotho and Zimbabwe in the same boat.
Broos believes the best way to solve this issue of stadiums would be to ban nations like Zimbabwe from qualifiers if they cannot meet the required standards after a certain period of time, which would speed up the process of fixing home venues.
He even thinks Zimbabwe will host Bafana Bafana in South Africa next year.
“This one thing I don’t understand in African football is that home games are not home games.
“I think Zimbabwe will play their home games in South Africa, so we have a little advantage for that game,” said Broos.
So the one lesson from last week’s qualifiers is that Zimbabwe must have an international stadium by the first quarter of next year.
For the Zifa NC it was a challenge being hosts in foreign land and having to ferry the association’s secretariat to Rwanda to carry out home country duties for the game against Nigeria.
It was a costly exercise given that there were no meaningful earnings from gate takings in Rwanda against a Nigeria side that would have filled a stadium like Rufaro.
South Africa are the other team in Group C certain of attracting a big crowd in Zimbabwe and we cannot afford to have that match hosted south of the Limpopo.
Last week provided the first big test for the Zifa NC and they were always going to face challenges.
The first challenge was calling up players from their foreign bases and we had a situation where the coach ended up dropping players from his initial 28-man squad largely on a technicality that they did not have the proper documents to play for Zimbabwe.
Not enough work was done to secure papers in time for the matches in Rwanda, something that can be attributed to a lack of experience on those tasked to help the targeted “British Brigade” secure Zimbabwean passports.
Now there is more than enough time to undertake the process and ensure that all players wanted by Brito have papers.
The next challenge for the interim Zifa leadership is handling money issues with the players, as a misunderstanding resulted in the boycott of training a day after the game against Rwanda.
Finding a solution immediately after the standoff was a good achievement on the part of the Zifa NC and the players’ performance against Nigeria suggested there was peace in camp.
The Zifa NC initiative of taking legends Peter Ndlovu and Moses Chunga was a very good idea provided everything was done in consultation with Brito and his team.
It is however, important that the legends must not interfere in team selection but only embrace whatever the coach would have decided.
Also, it is important for Zifa NC (if they are sticking to the arrangement) to ensure that the legends they select for such assignments have legendary status and are proven speakers/coaches/motivators.
Finally, the Warriors must have international friendlies before the next round of qualifiers as requested by vice captain Marshall Munetsi.
Munetsi clearly said they were disorganised, especially in the first match, as they had not trained together.
A national team going into a World Cup qualifier without training is bad planning and the Zifa NC is aware of the Fifa calendar ahead of the next matches. As such, they have enough time to look for friendly matches where all key players turn up and help Brito come up with proper combinations.
There is no reason why the Warriors cannot win Group C, which is wide open right now.
All it needs is for the Zifa NC and stakeholders to learn from what was experienced in Rwanda last week.
Online Reporter