Online Reporter
Howard Musonza in MARRAKECH, Morocco
MARIAN Marinica does not talk like a man waiting for permission.
He speaks with the calm of someone who understands how quickly a moment can be lost if emotion runs ahead of thought. That steadiness matters now, with Zimbabwe facing a familiar rival and a group stage that has tightened into something unforgiving.
Zimbabwe and South Africa have been doing this to each other for three decades, swapping bruises, grudges, and bragging rights in buses, bars, and WhatsApp groups from Bulawayo to Johannesburg. This derby never stays inside the stadium. It follows people to work, to family gatherings, to the streets where Zimbabwean accents live in South African cities and South African swagger walks into Zimbabwean conversations.
Now it has arrived in Marrakesh with qualification hanging in the air.
The Warriors have one point from two games. They have played well enough to convince people they belong, and wastefully enough to leave the country frustrated. They could have “killed” Egypt and did not.
They could have put Angola away and did not. What remains is a final group game sharpened by consequence. A win can push Zimbabwe into the last 16. Anything else risks another chapter of “almost”.
In the middle of it all stands Marinica, the Romanian coach the squad has nicknamed “Super Mario”, a label that sounds playful until you listen to how he speaks about his work. He talks like a man who re-fuses to let fear run his team. He also understands exactly what this fixture does to people.
Asked about life in Morocco, he starts somewhere else, with the cost of the job.
“Well, it’s very good. Us as coaches, we are privileged to be in a position to enjoy, let’s say, a life at high end.”
Then he pulls the curtain back.
“It’s true with a lot of pressure and a lot of, if you have to look, sacrifices, many, many sacrifices because they don’t see compared to the families, you are not close to the families. Your family are the players and the staff and unfortunately, you know, not all the time you can please everyone.”
December sharpens that absence.
“But your close, close family is far away and it’s difficult, particularly when you get to this type of limit for festive moments and actually it’s a time to stay with the family and you are not able to do that.”
There is no self pity in how he says it. Just acceptance.
“But that’s part of life, it’s life what we choose and myself, I’m privileged to be able to coach a Zimbabwe national team at the moment and to try to guide them to a historic qualification.”
Historic qualification is the phrase he returns to. Zimbabwe have never reached the AFCON Round of 16. The country has watched teams promise, flicker, and fall away. This group has opened a door and made every missed chance echo louder.
That noise does not move Marinica.
“Myself, I don’t believe in pressure. You know, I think it doesn’t exist pressure. Pressure is a state of mind you put yourself under.”
He explains it with a simple image.
“You see, if you walk on the line, you could do now, no problem. Okay. It’s a line, you know, that wide, you can walk, no problem. If that is lifted high, then you start thinking that probably you may fail.”
The opponent, he suggests, is not the only threat. Your own head is.
Zimbabwe have spent years being treated as the stubborn neighbour, capable of disruption but rarely progression. South Africa, by contrast, expect to set the regional standard. Add qualification pressure and old memory, and the match becomes volatile.
Marinica insists his team will not shrink.
“We went there to score goals, we went there to attack the teams and we went there to actually win the matches, not to defend, not to park the bus, to hope for, you know, a nil-nil or something like that and maybe hitting on the break.”
This is not rhetoric. It is also where the frustration lies. Against Angola, Zimbabwe shot often but poorly.
“If you have to look at Angola, we had 17 shoots. Unbelievable compared to what actually has happened in the past. However, only four of them hitting the target. So, as a coach, you’re a bit frustrated because the tactics work, but sometimes, you know, there is also, according to players, to put the ball in the back of the net.”
He says the feeling stretches beyond the technical area.
“I feel the country frustrated because obviously, you know, we had the chance by now to be already through.”
This rivalry is not only about finishing chances. It is also about memory.
South Africa have not lost to Zimbabwe since 2013. Zimbabwe have still found ways to make them uncomfortable. Earlier this year, the Warriors held Bafana Bafana to a goalless draw in World Cup qualifying, delaying their progress and forcing them to chase qualification later than expected.
The message was simple. We will not make this easy.
Zimbabwe now want more than discomfort. They want a result that shifts their AFCON story.
Preparation has not been perfect. There is illness in camp. Even Marinica’s voice carries the strain of the schedule.
“There is something, for example, say there is a flu in the camp and my assistant, who actually happens to be South African, cannot take part in this match, I think, because he’s very, very bad with flu. And even myself, you see, I have a little bit of, you know, voice.”
So he leans harder on organisation and clarity, on his philosophy of speed that begins in the mind.
“Fast and very fast is not that actually kick the ball fast. This, as a part of philosophy, is very deep. Is you have to think fast, you have to act fast, you have to move fast and you have to be well prepared and organised.”
He breaks it down further.
“The thinking is done early. So the thinking is fast. So, therefore, the player has to focus only on his technique.”
When supporters ask about line-ups, he talks instead about data, chemistry, and mental readiness.
“We’re looking at data, we’re looking, you know, scientifically, we’re looking, you know, remember, at five corners, technically, tactically, we look at physical aspect, we look at mental aspect and the social aspect.”
Zimbabwe, he says, must be clever because their players do not arrive with the same weekly rhythm as their opponents.
“Unfortunately, the fact is that some of our players, they haven’t got the exposure that the opponents has. At the same time, they don’t have the matches that the opponents have to play regularly at very top level.” That reality demands rotation and freshness.
“Therefore, we have to come with some surprises, have to come with freshness.”
Strip everything back, the derby, the history, the missed chances, the illness, the calculations, and Marinica returns to one line.
“I will go here to win a match.”
That is his argument.
No panic. No pleading. No safety first football to protect a narrative.
Win, and Zimbabwe’s AFCON becomes something new. Lose, and it becomes another familiar lesson, remembered long after the noise fades.
