Sadomba, Kaseke in nightmarish debut

Former Dynamos gunman, Sadomba, playing for his new paymasters, Al-Ittihad Kalba was shown a straight red card seven minutes before end of the match as his side fell 1-2 at home to Bani Yas and as if to spell a black weekend for the Zimbabweans, former Highlanders defender, Noel Kaseke right at the dearth of the match as his Al-Shaab outfit fell 0-1 to Dubai.

Sadomba and Kaseke both signed lucrative contracts for their outfits, Sadomba joining from Sudanese giants Al-Hilal while Kaseke was with struggling Cypriot outfit Alki.

Kaseke’s former teammates at Highlanders, Vusa Nyoni and Eddie Mashinya’s Belgian and Cypriot sides picked up a point and three points respectively, Nyoni’s Mons held out to a 0-0 draw against his former club, Germinal Beerschot while Ethnikos Achna, home to Mashinya walloped Paphos 3-0. Mashinya was a 72 minute introduction for Marco Paixono while Nyoni played the whole match.

Fellow Zimbabwean in the Jupiler League in Belgium, Ovidy Karuru was taken out in the 79th minute for Bjorn Ruytinx as his side, OH-Leuven lost 2-0 on the road to Waasland-Beveren.

In England, Charlton Athletic, home to Bradley Pritchard lost their second match in five outings, going down, 1-2 to Sheffield Wednesday in a weekend in which Onesimo Bhasera’s Plymouth Argyle drew 0-0 with visiting Accrington Stanley.

With the Warriors set to play neighbours Botswana in an international friendly in Harare next Wednesday, the active contingent of the European based players are likely to form the nucleus of the team although financial constraints on the part of Zifa might prevent the players flying down to Zimbabwe for the match.

Zifa vice president Ndumiso Gumede told this publication last week that the association was in the red with its finances and were at the moment not certain that they will be able to fulfil their World Cup 2014 qualifier against once mighty Egypt on 23 March in a must win encounter for the Warriors.

If the match materialises, Zimbabwe could take full advantage of the chaos in the Egyptian football and hurt them when they are at their weakest point.

The Egyptian league has been on suspension since February last year after the death of 74 fans in stadium clashes and was set to resume next week but fresh violence rocked their football landscape last week following the sentencing of the 21 arrested suspects to death.