Not all hope is lost in Young Mighty Warriors’ camp

Two years after the Nigerians humiliated the Young Warriors  10-0 on aggregate, in the qualifiers of the same tournament, the Falconets took a major step towards qualifying for the next round with a 3-0 win here.
The Young Mighty Warriors now face an uphill task of overturning the three goals they conceded here when they meet Nigeria on April 15 at Rufaro.
The coach Langton Giwa believes it can be done.
Zimbabwe crumbled like a deck of cards here and this was a poor showing for a team that had promised so much but delivered very little.
After managing to absorb the pressure in the opening 25 minutes, you felt the Young Warriors were being pushed to the limit.
Fifteen-year-old left link, Mavis Chirandu, was having problems while on the right Elizabeth Chaparangana, who is a seasoned player, was having nightmares on the flank.
It was this side that was turned into a highway by the hosts.
Mufakose Queens’ defensive midfielder Emmaculate Msipa failed to stamp her authority in the middle of the park.
The centre twin backs of Danai Bhobho and Rhoda Jongondi were left to mop all the balls and cover for their ineffective teammates.
Had it not been for the impressive goalkeeper, the visitors could have been humiliated by a rugby score.
However, Giwa who has been confident going into this battle and even said it wasn’t the biblical David versus Goliath contest, still has a belief that home advantage, and the return of big forward Rufaro Machingura who was serving a two-match ban, could help their cause.
“The players went into the game confident but later panicked. We conceded soft goals as the Nigerians did not work for those goals,” said Giwa.
“Our game plan was affected after Mavis, Elizabeth, Eunice and Emmaculate failed to click and this really cost us. We failed to play our passing game except for the last five minutes of the match.”
Giwa said it was always going to be difficult playing against over-aged players who played in the previous qualifiers and, together with Ghana, represented Africa at the World Cup where Nigeria reached the finals but lost 0-2 to hosts Germany.
“Their players are over-aged. It is the same team which we played in 2010 and some of our players who featured then and are in this team where Under-17s,” said Giwa.
“They dropped three over-aged players and were supposed to drop seven more.
“But we hope will win at home. We will work on the areas, which let us down today.
“Our midfield was exposed and gave pressure to the defence. An away goal could have really helped us but unfortunately Rutendo’s (Makore) goal was disallowed while Emma’s long range missed the target.”
The Mufakose Queens gaffer paid tribute to the goalkeeper who was outstanding for Zimbabwe.
Every time Nigeria were in possession, it ended up in a scoring chance but they took turns to either miss, were denied by the post or a save being pulled by the New Orleans goalminder.
Giwa, who has won successive Zone Six Youth Games titles, will have to a lot do in Harare.
“Nigeria were able to create a lot of chances as this was being helped by the inefficient midfield,” said Giwa.
“The goalkeeper really did well to reduce the damage. The second goal really let the girls down as they were coming from the breather and we later made some changes with the fresh players doing well,” said Giwa.