It wasn’t pretty but well done Warriors

MALAWI played the football but it was the Warriors who scored, won the match and booked a third flight to the Africa Cup of Nations.

Usually a 3-0 score line speaks of dominance but there is no way we can claim that our boys played the visitors out of the park at the National Sports Stadium last Sunday.

For large chunks of the match, Kallisto Pasuwa’s men were not easy on the eye but who has the audacity to complain when the team will be one of the 16 football aristocrats at Gabon 2017?

In the build up to the match, the Warriors gaffer had warned that his team would not attack blindly when so much was at stake.

Tendai Ndoro, the most forward player of the day, looked lonely and had to go deep in search of play as Zimbabwe gave Malawi freedom to play but never a sniff at Tatenda Mukuruva’s goal.

Veteran Malawian midfielder Joseph Kamwendo had loads of possession, if it were food he would have left the park a bit more overweight that he is now.

But while Kamwendo had possession, the former Caps United man never hurt the Warriors as he always looked for the long pass.

A perusal of the Warriors’ tactical spreads showed that Pasuwa chose to let Kamwendo play in return for having an extra man behind the ball at all times.

David Sengu played with Kamwendo at Caps United and says the Warriors technical team was on point with their game plan.

“I have heard, during the post match reactions, people saying that Joseph Kamwendo played well and the Warriors had no answer for him but I disagree,” said the former Makepekepe skipper.

“Yes, he had so much possession but the question is what he did with it?

“During our days at Caps, coach Charles Mhlauri always told us to expect the long pass from Kamwendo. That’s how he played back then and that is how he is still playing.

“If you noticed after exchanging one or two short passes with the nearest teammate, Kamwendo sought the long pass and those passes never hurt us because we were always first to the second ball.”

Former Buymore and Caps FC striker More Moyo called it a controlled performance.

“Yes fans wants to see the skills, the nutmegs and neat build ups but there are times when the result is all that matters and against Malawi, the Warriors got the points without exposing themselves,” he said.

Warriors skipper Willard Katsande said it was all about crossing the line.

“It was more tactical that anything else. Getting three points was the biggest objective and we got it.

“With the game in the back we showed that we can also entertain but there was very little time left,” he said.