Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo in POLOKWANE, South Africa
ZIMBABWE coach Michael Nees said he will have another throw of the dice to try and find solutions to the goal drought that has been the Warriors’ Achilles Heel in their failed World Cup qualification bid.
The Warriors’ ineptitude in front of goal was once again exposed when they fell 1-0 in their final Group C qualifier against Lesotho at Peter Mokaba in Polokwane on Monday night.
Such was the lack of potency by Zimbabwe that they couldn’t even put away a single chance from the six clear opportunities they fashioned.
Win-less Zimbabwe were already down and out of World Cup qualification contention.
But Nees was expecting an improved show, especially in front of goal, after making wholesale changes to the team that normally starts.
But the script remained unchanged, with the Warriors failing to make their dominance count. The Warriors’ last two World Cup qualifiers were played with one eye on the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations set for Morocco in December-January.
Now Nees has one other international window next month to find solutions to his team’s goal drought amid indications that domestic Premiership’s leading scorer Washington Navaya could be given a trial.
“Then in November, maybe we could try other players up front to see if maybe they can bring the energy.
”We, have now Kaitano Tembo, we hope Takesure Chiragwi can come back.
“If it would be that easy, then the scoring rate in your league and all the other things would be higher. It’s basically very similar. It’s very similar.
“Maybe we look into November period to look at one or other players up front and maybe invite them.
“But last year, I want to repeat it again, the top goal scorer, this year, no goal.
“This year, the top goal scorer from last year (Lynoth Chikuhwa) — nobody asked about him.
“It’s not that these are strikers consistently, season in, season out, performing on a high level and scoring goals.
“It’s not like that; otherwise, they would play somewhere else.” Nees reiterated his concerns on the low quality of the local top-flight, whose strikers have now gone 15 years without breaching the late Norman Maroto’s 22-goal mark.
“And the local league, I must also tell you, it’s very much slower. And I already explained that, with the conditions of the pitches and everything, the ball needs to be trapped, needs to be down because it bounces, it permanently bounces.
“So, the game is much, much slower.
“And when you come to international level, the game action speed is the required game action speed, that means decision-making under pressure. It’s suddenly much higher.
“And the pressing and the work rate without the ball.
“It could also be a physical thing, maybe, but of course, we need to look and really introspect.
“Maybe someone has the momentum.
“We need to look, maybe someone has the momentum, but also had the players from the local league.
“I had Machope (Tymon), it was not that he was not here. It’s not that the local players, some are playing in the local league, it’s not that we do not use them, we brought today (on Monday) fresh legs in because the fatigue was too high and some were really, really problematic.”
After playing a high intense match in the penultimate game against South Africa that ended goalless in Durban last Friday, Nees had to change tact and personnel against a Lesotho side that beat the Warriors 2-0 in the reverse fixture last year.
But the strikers took turns to fluff hard-to-miss chances with Belgian-based Bill Antonio, one of the biggest culprits.
His pressing was second-class and his passing left a lot to be desired. He attempted, so many times and desperately so, to dribble past his markers but always lacked the conviction to succeed.
When he did succeed, he launched the ball into the box just twice and three times he had the ball at his feet with the goal at his mercy but still failed to find the net even at one of the occasions with the Lesotho goalkeeper already beaten.
Then Prince Dube, a seasoned Warrior, should also take a flak for rushing to hit the ball first time after being set up by Tawanda Chirewa in a situation he should have taken an extra touch. Dube’s work rate was and is, however, beyond question.
Antonio’s replacement Daniel Msendami appeared a bundle of nerves after being called in to plug the gap left by Thando Ngwenya ‘s injury and the unavailability of Tawanda Maswanhise, who lost his passport to stand ineligible in the fixture.
Msendami is playing in the South African top-flight, a level where it is basic to know that when the goalkeeper sprawls down, one has to chip over them.
But he did completely the opposite when coming face-to-face with the Crocodiles goalkeeper, hitting the ball straight down him when the stadium was already erupting in anticipation of a goal that looked inevitable. “We had to call in Daniel Msendami into the camp. He got his chances and failed to score.
“Bill Antonio, I think, was improved today, really.
“But also, he needs maybe more game time in his club to have that last energy, that last confidence then to maybe bring the ball also into the net or at the final delivery to bring it to the partner that he can just tap the ball in.
“It’s all these small things you need to get accustomed to at a certain speed, game-action, speed in front of the goal, and that’s what makes it difficult to integrate players, plus the time factor.
“But in November, there’s a little bit less pressure, maybe the one or other will be invited, we have to look, and who knows, maybe someone has the magic in the foot.
“Sometimes it’s about momentum. We just have to keep going as a team. We can’t really dwell too much on defeats. At the end of the day, we have to move forward. We sit here and talk about this and that, but at the end of the day, the game’s done,’’ added Nees.
Peter Tanyanyiwa