Moffat Mungazi
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
ON a night when Zimbabwe Warriors defied all odds to hold the Super Eagles of Nigeria in their own backyard, earning the respect and admiration of, not only their fans back home, but across the mighty Limpopo River, followers of the game looked back to the early days of this World Cup campaign with a deep sense of remorse, anger and disdain.
In the aftermath of that impressive away stalemate against the highly rated Super Eagles on Tuesday evening, there was a sudden gush of anger and vitriol directed towards Manica Diamonds coach, Jairos Tapera — who many believe was the chief architect of the Warrior’s failure to qualify for a place in the global football showpiece campaign.
So bitter was the defeat for the Nigerians that chest pains were detectable in their coach, who was literally breathing through the wounds.
In a tense moment on the sidelines following a 1-1 draw in the World Cup Qualifiers, Nigerian coach appeared visibly shaken, and even declined to shake hands with Warriors coach, Michael Nees.
Such is the competitive outfit that Nees has assembled in the few months he has been in charge, which is in stark contrast to what Tapera assembled when he was given the chance to lead the Warriors back then.
The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Normalisation Committee appointed Tapera as the senior men’s national team interim head coach, with Takesure Chiragwi, of Ngezi Platinum Stars and Saul Chaminuka, of GreenFuel as interim assistant coaches.
Former Warriors head coach, Sunday Chidzambwa, was appointed the technical director.
However, Tapera’s disastrous stint as Warriors head coach saw the national team losing to little-known Lesotho (0-2) and South Africa (1-3) in the 2026 CAF World Cup qualifiers played in South Africa.
This came against the backdrop of former Warriors coach, Baltemar Brito securing two points from two games —against Rwanda and Nigeria — in November 2023.
Tapera, who failed to win a single point from the two matches, still had the temerity to say the team did not perform badly in the losses to Lesotho and South Africa.
Tapera blamed the losses on poor organisation, the FIFA ban, inclusion of youngsters in the squad and inadequate preparation time.
However, fans, who took to the social media on Tuesday night believe he was never the right choice for the job.
Contributing to a social media debate on the issue, Blessing Mbiro reminisced the forgettable loss to Lesotho.
“Imagine losing against Lesotho,” he wrote.
Kudzie Iseya comically called for his arrest.
“This guy must be arrested.”
Shingies Legy Mpambare weighed in, and reminded many of the late substitution that Tapera made when the Warriors were 1-3 down to Bafana Bafana.
“The coach who put two substitutes in the 91st minute as a delaying tactic when his team was losing 1-3 against South Africa,” he wrote.
Tapera defended that decision saying he wanted to give the incoming player a national team cap since he had already conceded defeat.
Stephen Masawi blamed the appointing authority.
“Whoever appointed him is the one to blame. I never heard about him until the day he was appointed,” he said.
Apparently, Tapera could have been appointed the national team caretaker coach because his Manica Diamonds was on top of the Castle Lager Premiership log then.
Biggie Shuka revisited the late substitution against South Africa.
“He is very stupid. How can you make a substitution when you are at a disadvantage,” he wrote.
John Moyana said: “The only Jairos I know is Jairos Jiri.”
Online Reporter