Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
Mauritius………………………….…………..(1)1
Zimbabwe…………………..………………..(4)4
(Zimbabwe win 6-1 on aggregate)
IT’S still a long way to go but the Zimbabwe Under-23 side did paste their credentials right on the wall when rolling over Mauritius in the second leg of this first round 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games qualifier in St Louis last night.
Already carrying a 2-0 lead into the decisive game, the Young Warriors showed they tagged along the methods too just to show their commanding display from the reverse fixture at the National Sports Stadium last Wednesday was no fluke.
Teenage forward Elisha Pfupa led the demolition with a hattrick that was topped up by David Chigwada’s wonder goal at the top of the opening half.
Jean Jolicoeur tapped in the home team’s consolation also in the first stanza that was high on intensity and sheer determination from both sides.
The Marc Sanchez boys will now face Mali in November after which the winners between either Eswatini or Malawi and Algeria will lie in wait should Zimbabwe manage to dump the Malians.
Should they be successful in surmounting both hurdles, the Young Warriors will then book their place in the 12-team Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Egypt next year from which the best two teams will punch tickets to Los Angeles in 2028.
That’s a long, winding road to what will be their first ever Olympic Games appearance but there is every reason to be optimistic of their chances given the way they pummelled Mauritius last night.
The gulf in quality between the two opponents was beyond question with Zimbabwe dominating in all the key aspects and literally pitching tent in their opposition half throughout the game.
The excellent fusion of the foreign brigade with local-based players by Sanchez is refreshing and the team will be hinging their hopes to darting over the next opponents on their newly found chemistry and telepathy.
Pfupa coolly took his first goal inside the first quarter-of-an-hour to cool down the Young Warriors’ veins before heading in a perfectly lofted Seth Chingwaro cross four minutes later.
That helped the guests to start enjoying their game with Sanchez tactical masterclass playing out before the cheering crowd of mostly Zimbabwean community living in Mauritius.
The support was massive and if anything, the Young Warriors felt as much as they were the home team, and their own performance seemed to contextualise it all.
Even when Jalicouer halved the deficit for Mauritius five minutes after Pfupa’s second goal, there looked to be no way, absolutely no way, Zimbabwe would ever allow them back into the game.
The Young Warriors had to be disciplined, maybe a bit, just to manage their opponents who had obviously been activated after getting their goal.
But like real ballers, Zimbabwe restored their two-goal cushion, Pfupa’s diving header off a Richard Nkomo cross putting them out of reach.
But the young Zimbabweans weren’t yet done with Chigwada rifling from inside the box just to confirm their passage into the next round.
But then all the aura left the game in the second half with submissive Mauritians turning physical on the likes of Pfupa and Prosper Padera who might just have suffered bad injuries at the end.
But besides that and some glaring misses from Zimbabwe, the game was done and all the visitors had to do was manage it out which they did commendably well.
