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Robson Sharuko in CAIRO, Egypt
NORMAN MAPEZA, the coach who started this adventure which ended with the Warriors qualifying for the 2019 AFCON finals, hasn’t forgotten the men he guided in that opening qualifying match against Liberia.
That was in June 2017 and Mapeza, as he has done now and again in service for his country, was drafted in to help the team in a time of chaos.
The Warriors were leaderless after Callisto Pasuwa’s tenure, which saw them return to the AFCON finals for the first time in more than a decade, had ended with that first round elimination in Gabon.
Three years earlier, the Warriors’ quest for a place at the 2015 AFCON finals had ended in the humiliation of being knocked out of the 2015 AFCON qualifiers at the preliminary stage at the hands of Tanzania.
A 0-1 defeat in Dar-es-Salaam, where John Bocco scored the only goal, condemned the Warriors to a surprise defeat in the first leg.
Danny Phiri and Willard Katsande scored at the National Sports Stadium in the reverse leg, but twice the Tanzanians rallied back for a 2-2 draw and the Warriors lost 2-3.
That the same Taifa Stars crashed out in the next round, conceding four goals at the hands of Mozambique, was a reminder of how the Zimbabweans had fallen down the pecking order of African football.
But nothing remains the same in football, just like in life. Desperate for a Messiah to ensure the team didn’t slide to the same levels where they had been knocked out in the preliminary round by Tanzania, and needing to find someone who could possibly do as well, or maybe better than Pasuwa, the Zimbabwe football leaders turned to a familiar face.
Mapeza, the former skipper, was asked to come in and help his country in an ad-hoc capacity.
The FC Platinum gaffer, who has declared he will never turn his back on his country and will serve the team every time he is asked to, said yes, and was tasked with leading the Warriors in the first 2019 AFCON qualifier against Liberia.
Knowledge Musona, promoted to captain, scored three goals in that match in a 3-0 win and the Warriors were up and running in the new campaign that would eventually end with Sunday Chidzambwa taking them over line for a place at this AFCON finals.
Today, they take on hosts and favourites Egypt in the first match of the 2019 AFCON finals and Mapeza believes it could set the tone for their tournament.
“That first match is very important and the boys mustn’t put themselves under pressure,’’ he told The Herald yesterday.
“Anything can happen in football.
“It’s all about self-belief and confidence. Who thought Liverpool were going to come back from that 3-0 defeat by Barcelona?
“Self-belief and confidence is the key. I have this strong feeling, this time around we will go beyond the group stages. There is so much quality in our team.’’
It’s something many have been keen to trumpet — with Tendai Darikwa arriving to give them a new dimension in defence, Teenage Hadebe and Alec Mudimu forming a good combination in the heart of defence, Marshall Munetsi’s career growing in leaps and bounds in the last few years and Khama Billiat and Knowledge Musona still leading from the front.
In the past, the Warriors never used to win away from home, as that loss in Tanzania testified, but now this is a team that went to Kinshasa and emerged out of the Rumble in the Jungle with a sensational 2-1 win over the DRC.
As fate might have it, the Warriors and the DRC will play each other again in Group A here and, if that was not enough, the draw for the hotels meant that they are staying at the same hotel, the Meridien, in the Heliopolis area of this city.
Mapeza believes they can match the Pharaohs. It’s the kind of music the team’s fans have been waiting to hear, but whether that comes to pass here tonight is another thing altogether.
Online Reporter