Online Reporter
IT’S a huge week for the Warriors as they will resume their 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Durban on Thursday.
After an impressive qualification process for the 2025 AFCON campaign, the Warriors have found the World Cup qualifiers to be a tougher proposition.
We go into the fifth round of matches sitting at the bottom of the table with two points from our first four matches.
We have picked just two points out of a possible 12 points after losing our last two matches against Lesotho and South Africa.
Both games were played in South Africa because we still don’t have a stadium which can satisfy the CAF requirements to host such international matches.
We have played in Johannesburg and Polokwane and now we are going to host Benin in Durban before we fly to Nigeria to battle the Super Eagles in Uyo next week.
We are five points behind the joint leaders Rwanda, South Africa and Benin with six games still to be played in the marathon qualifiers which will end in October this year.
This means that we still have a chance to end up as the group winners if we win all our remaining matches and other results go in our favour.
What we can control is trying to win all our matches, which is not easy but neither is it impossible.
Warriors coach Michael Nees, whose arrival has seen the team playing better and getting key results, has also tried to challenge his players by telling them that the World Cup qualifiers will also act as a platform for him to pick players for the AFCON finals set for December in Morocco.
This means there is a good incentive for our boys to really put in the shift and turn on the style in their remaining matches.
We have a decent team right now and we were unlucky to lose to the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in our AFCON qualifier.
We have already held Nigeria and Rwanda in Rwanda.
The only poor performance was against Lesotho.
But, in football, that happens a lot.
We just saw Liverpool produce a lifeless performance in the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle which they lost 1-2 at Wembley on Sunday.
The good sides are defined by how they respond to such setbacks and we can say that our response to the loss at the hands of Lesotho has been good.
The return of former captain Knowledge Musona should give us a cutting edge in attack and add value to a team, which Nees has built, which looks tough to beat.
It’s the first game for Marshall Munetsi for his country since his big move to Wolves in the English Premiership where he is making a good impression.
We have no doubt that we can not only beat Benin, who have been impressive, but we can also go to Nigeria and beat the Super Eagles in their backyard.
Our World Cup starts now and our message to our boys is for them to simply believe that, as a team, they have come of age.
Mathew Masinge