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Cup of Nations first round, first leg qualifier tomorrow.
The Warriors will take on the Swallows at the Prince Louis Stadium tomorrow afternoon in the first of a possible series of just four games they need to clear in order to secure a place at next year’s Nations Cup finals in South Africa.
After just two appearances at the continental soccer showcase, both Zifa and the Warriors badly want another dance with the Nations Cup finals and Zambia’s triumph at the 2012 edition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea has not only inspired them but also brought about with it some form of pressure.
The clarion call in domestic football since Chipolopolo’s triumph over Cote d’Ivoire earlier this month has been that “if the Zambians can do it why not the Warriors with better focus, unity of purpose and organisation’’.
But it has not all been smooth sailing for Gumbo and his men since their arrival at the Bujumbura International Airport on Sunday afternoon for the first hurdle in the qualifying journey to the 2013 finals.
The Warriors entourage rejected the sub-standard hotel, which their hosts booked them into but their efforts to secure alternative accommodation hit a brick wall yesterday with the Burundi Football Federation insisting, after literally dumping them on the first night, that it was the only place they could afford.
With the Warriors delegation also short on contingency funds to book themselves into any of the better hotels around the Burundi capital, Gumbo and his men yesterday resigned to coping with the tough conditions at the Alexestel hotel where even their food allocation is heavily rationed.
But the FC Platinum coach, with years of experience in the jungles of African football having travelled either as Highlanders or Warriors’ mentor and having coached in Malawi and Botswana, revealed that he had addressed his players over their plight here.
Gumbo, not short on experienced backroom staff that includes former Dynamos coach David Mandigora, Warriors legend Peter Ndlovu, goalkeepers’ coach Richard Tswatsa and widely travelled team doctor Nicholas Munyonga, rallied his charges to “focus more on the job at hand’’.
The Warriors gaffer, back with the senior team in East Africa for the first time since his last visit to neighbouring Rwanda eight years ago, reckoned that some of the challenges they were facing in Bujumbura could be a result of financial problems on the part of the host association.
“I have noticed that playing in most of these African countries can be a nightmare and in East Africa most of the problems are actually related to the fact that the associations would be poor.
“So I have told these players that they are not here on holiday and they just have to forget everything and focus on the match.
“I have also noticed that what they have experienced seems to be helping them understand that there is going to be war on our hands. We have to turn all the negatives into positives and get a result because what we need most here is a result,’’ Gumbo said.
Gumbo, back in charge of the country’s flagship football team at least for just one dance, for now, drew some similarities between his latest visit and the trip to Kigali eight years ago.
“When we went to Rwanda in 2004, I had a mixture of youth and experience and I am glad that some of the people who were there in Rwanda are still around and their experience will come in handy.
“Guys like Esrom Nyandoro, Tinashe Nengomasha, Peter Ndlovu, Tapuwa Kapini are still around,’’ Gumbo said.
Ndlovu and Nengomasha, scoring his first and only goal for the Warriors to date, struck either side of half-time as Zimbabwe began their 2006 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign on a high note.
Gumbo will be hoping for a similar if not bigger result when his Warriors take on the Swallows on the artificial turf of Prince Louis Stadium.
The Warriors were yesterday further boosted by the arrival of Belgium-based defender Vusa Nyoni, one of the most consistent players in their failed 2012 qualifying campaign.
Talismanic striker Knowledge Musona and Cyprus-based defender Noel Kaseke are expected to fly in today and complete the cast before tomorrow afternoon’s showdown.
After two workouts at the Burundi Football Federation’s Goal Project technical centre, Gumbo was “happy with the way things are taking shape on the field’’.
“Now we just have two guys left and that is Knowledge and Noel who will be here tomorrow. I have a new team and I have designed a game plan for them and despite the short time they have together I think they will gel.
“It is a little humid and my only worry is that Knowledge and Noel are coming in from very cold conditions in Europe and would have needed at least two days to adjust like what the rest of the guys seem to have done.
“I also have an idea of how the East Africans play and I am sure we will get the result that we want but we have to avoid conceding an early goal in order to take control of the game,’’ Gumbo said.
The coach has installed eccentric AmaZulu goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini as captain of this side.
Despite their nightmare in Bujumbura, the Warriors have had some of their challenges eased by the assistance they have been getting from their countryman John Takaindisa who works here and has been on hand to offer logistical help.
But it is how they will get their latest Nations Cup qualifying bid underway tomorrow that will be the focus of a soccer-loving nation that has suffered several heartbreaks at the hands of the Warriors.
Online Reporter