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Ellina Mhlanga Harare Bureau—
Zimbabwe 1-0 Cameroon
(Zimbabwe qualify 3-2 on the away goals)
LET’S celebrate long and hard because, for the first time in our history, our national women football team have qualified for the Olympic Games and a samba dance with the world’s best sides in Rio de Jaineiro, Brazil. Yes, against all odds, the Mighty Warriors beat Cameroon at Rufaro yesterday, to get the result they needed to book a ticket to the Olympic Games on the away goals rule. Since 1980, when the hockey women’s team, known as the Golden Girls, participated at the Olympics in Moscow, Russia and won gold, no other local team had qualified for the world’s greatest sporting showcase.
But yesterday Mighty Warriors chief striker Rudo Neshamba, who scored two goals in these qualifiers and was among the CAF top five goal scorers going into yesterday’s match, ended all that when she got the all important goal with a beauty in the seventh minute. The goal, and subsequent victory, meant that the tie ended 2-2 on aggregate but the Mighty Warriors qualified on the away goals rule.
Neshamba, who fired home a volley after getting to the end of a Marjoury Nyaumwe’s assist, beating Cameroon goalkeeper Mambingo Mambingo, ensured that the hosts got the result they wanted to qualify and send their fans into a frenzy of delight. Sadly, the forward had to be replaced just after half an hour after she suffered a concussion.
Mighty Warriors coach, Shadreck Mlauzi, who took over from Rosemary Mugadza just before their first leg against Cameroon, was overwhelmed by the victory yesterday and said their dream has turned into a reality. “This is what we set out to do, everything has been about planning, everything has been about the commitment,” said Mlauzi.
“Everything goes down to the level of professionalism that we introduced in our setup. Right from day one, we stressed that we should dream big, so everything has been about the dream and I’m happy today that at the end of the day we’ve lived that dream.
“It was my first assignment but look I’ve been involved with the junior national teams so I was never overcome by the occasion. “I knew I was always the man for the job and at the same time I’m happy the players responded brilliantly to the training methods.” Mlauzi was full of praise for his side and said they were concerned after Neshamba’s injury that saw her being carried out of the field of play.
“She (Neshamba) is a natural goalscorer I’m proud of her. We simply told the players today that they need to make a success-starved nation happy and the players did exactly that. “Of course, we were concerned because she is a natural goal-scorer so one would want her to play full 90 minutes so that you keep pressurising the opposition and even get a cushioning second goal.
“At the end of the day it didn’t happen but look again with the tactical framework that we set all players were ready to go in there,” Mlauzi said. After getting their goal in the first half the Mighty Warriors became more defensive, especially in the second half, as the Cameroonians fought to equalise and there were some scary moments for the home team.
Cameroon created some opportunities to score but they found Zimbabwe’s Chido Dzingirai up the task. The West Africans’ first dangerous attack came in the 25th minute when Sheila Makoto lost the ball to Edoa Akaba whose close range shot was saved by Dzingirai.
Akaba came back to haunt Zimbabwe just two minutes from the break but again Dzingirai was up to the task. In the 53rd minute Feudjio Tchuanyo’s shot went over the bar before Brigitte Omboudou’s also tried her luck after receiving a cross from Onguene Abdoudi five minutes later but her header was off target.
Mlauzi said although the defensive approach was “not necessarily” part of their game plan going into the match, he was pleased with the way they managed to defend their goal.
“We needed to score early then set a pattern of play but look this is a far more experienced team than us,” said Mlauzi. “At the end of the day we had to dig deep, we worked on our defensive shape, it’s a very difficult structure to break especially for players who’re not clever on and off the ball so with that structure we knew that we had set the right tactical football framework to win football matches.
“Definitely we needed to press higher up the pitch, we knew that they were not comfortable on the ball. So, once we pressed high up the pitch, we were going make them behave in a particular manner and we did exactly that and our tactical shape as well really set the tone for us to achieve this.”
The Mighty Warriors gaffer admitted that at some point during the match he was anxious. “Everything is about planning, we want to enjoy the occasion, then the rest of the things we will be in a position to plan latter,” said Mlauzi.
In the 78th minute Makore got to the end of a cross from Eunice Chibanda inside the box but she fluffed her lines. The Cameroonians were disappointed with the result and refused to comment on the game. The Mighty Warriors join Kirsty Coventry, long-distance runner Wirimai Juwawo and rowers Micheen Thornycroft and Peter Purcell-Gilpin for Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Teams:
Zimbabwe: C. Dzingirai, E. Chibanda, N. Majika, L. Mutokuto, S. Makoto, T. Mandaza, R. Kapfumvuti (R. Machingura 63 minutes), M. Nyaumwe, R. Neshamba (M. Chirandu 32minutes), F. Muzongondi (E. Jeke 83minutes), R. Makore.
Cameroon: M. Mambingo, C. Manie, Y. Leuko (B. Omboudou 52minutes), N. Nyolie, O. Aboudi (A. Nkada 83minutes) , T. Feudjio, M. Ngono, J. Ngock, M. Awona, T. Meffometou, E. Akaba.
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