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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
THE Government has chartered a direct flight for the Mighty Warriors to travel to Botswana this afternoon for their Africa Women Cup of Nations reverse leg qualifier against the neighbours on Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe senior national women’s football team lost 1-3 to The Mares on Friday at the National Sports Stadium.
They have a tall order in Francistown in the return leg of this last qualifying round.
The winner qualifies for the women’s Africa Nations Cup to be held in Morocco in July.
Government, through the Sports Commission, have been supporting the Mighty Warriors, who, for the first time, were camped at a hotel.
There are no connecting flights to Francistown, with only a few flights per week and it was difficult to get seats for the team.
The last time the Warriors travelled to Botswana, ZIFA had to negotiate with Botswana airlines to divert their flight from Johannesburg to Francistown.
Unfortunately, this time around there was no joy. And the Government stepped in to ensure smooth travel by chartering a flight for the Mighty Warriors.
The Mighty Warriors coach Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda has remained confident of turning the tables in Botswana.
“We saw weaknesses of Botswana and how best we can counter-attack them. We had our chances, we missed them. So if we can still go on and create those chances, and work on our finishing I think it’s doable.
“We were home and Botswana came in and scored three goals. With the right mindset we can still go out there like they did and upset them in their home ground. But of course, it is going to be a tall order, and we really need a lot of mental fitness from the players,” said Sibanda.
The absence of the domestic national women’s football league, which has been idle for the past two years, is contributing to the poor performance of the national team.
The local league failed to resume after Covid-19 affected football in 2020.
The Mighty Warriors’ display against Botswana on Friday in the Africa Women Cup of Nations last qualifying round showed that standards are going down.
Although Covid-19 affected all local sport, the men’s league successfully returned last year with the Chibuku Super Cup. The top-flight league is also underway. Both the women’s and men’s leagues were given the green light last year by the Government.
But women’s leagues have failed to return and no reasonable explanation has been offered.
The performance by the Mighty Warriors on Friday against a Botswana side that is active in league football showed that the inactivity, if not urgently addressed, will continue to weaken our national teams.
Going into the match, the Mighty Warriors had superior records against the neighbours, having won four matches in the six encounters between them. The recent meeting was at the COSAFA Championships in October last year, where Zimbabwe beat Botswana 3-0.
But the tide turned on Friday with three second-half goals from the visitors condemning the Mighty Warriors to a rare defeat at home. Sibanda reckoned that the inactivity of the national league is affecting women’s football.
“This is something that is derailing our women’s football in the country. I am sure some other countries have kicked off their leagues but we are not doing anything. At least if we could have even tournaments, they can help to really get our girls in shape. Hopefully, the league and tournaments will be sorted out soon,” said Sibanda. Other countries managed to play international friendly matches ahead of the Africa Women Cup of Nations qualifiers. South Africa travelled to Lusaka to play against Zambia and lost 3-0.
But the result spurred on Banyana Banyana, who beat Algeria 2-0 at Orlando Stadium on Friday. They travel to North Africa with a healthy lead.
AWCON Results
Burundi 6, Djibouti 1; Zambia 0, Namibia 0; Zimbabwe 1, Botswana 3; South Africa 2, Algeria 0; Tunisia 5, Equatorial Guinea 0; Togo 2, Gabon 1; Cameroon 8, Gambia 0; Senegal 1, Mali 0; Guinea 0, Burkina Faso 6; Nigeria 2, Cote d’lvoire 0.
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