Tactical blunders condemn us to agony once again

us more than the pain we endured when we failed in the previous occasions during the past six years.
One of the reasons is that the qualifying format for the 2013 Nations Cup finals, where the Warriors needed only to eliminate two teams and play just four games, provided an easier passage than the usual formats where we play six matches in one group.
Unlike the previous occasions when we have had to battle our West African nemesis like Guinea and Mali, this time we had the luxury of meeting East African lightweights, Burundi, and familiar Southern African opposition, Angola.
For a refreshing change, the support for the team was across the board with all the mainstream newspapers whipping the nation into a frenzy and making the players believe in their destiny, while companies, notably Mbada Diamonds, came on board in a very big way to support the team.
There were no reports, as we prepared for the final battle in Angola, of problems in camp and, unlike our last trip when we travelled to a World Cup qualifier in Maputo in June, the Warriors weren’t subjected to the abuse of being turned away at Harare International Airport because their tickets hadn’t been paid for.
This time, we had a chartered Air Zimbabwe flight, to take us to Luanda and, for good reason, we even took a number of our supporters to provide the backing for the boys.
Crucially, we had one foot in South Africa, given that we carried a healthy 3-1 lead from the first leg of the final qualifier in Harare and, for once in a very long time, we were holding the aces as we could even make it even in the event that we lost in Angola.
What more, really, could we have asked for?
But, cometh the hour, our Warriors did not stand up to be counted and, after just seven minutes, the Angolans had not only wiped away the advantage that we had carried from Harare, but were even now in control as they were ahead on the away goals rule.
The Warriors never recovered from those two early blows from Manucho and yet another dream to play at the Nations Cup finals fizzled out into a nightmare.
Technically, from the beginning of the second half at Rufaro and right to the end of the match in Luanda on Sunday, Angolan coach, Gustavo Ferrin, won his tactical battles with Rahman Gumbo and, to a larger extent, this had a huge bearing on the final outcome of the contest.
But once the Uruguayan coach corrected his mistakes and also realised that our biggest weakness, defensively, was on the flanks, the Angolans were in ascendancy and, after we survived some close shaves at home, we were buried in Luanda.
Questions, inevitably, will have to be asked about Rahman Gumbo’s approach, from the time we led 3-0 in the first half at home, to the time it all ended in tears in Luanda, because he came short when his players needed his counsel and leadership.
That Gumbo could start with five attack-minded players — Cuthbert Malajila, Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat, Vusa Nyoni and Achieford Gutu — in a game where he was defending a good advantage, was as suicidal as tactical decisions will ever come.
That we still kept Esrom Nyandoro in the centreback role, when a natural centreback Lincoln Zvasiya was now available and the stand-in skipper was now needed for his familiar battles in midfield where we needed to assume control, was also a monumental blunder by Gumbo.
There was no need for us to run a camp that had 31 players, including six goalkeepers, all week, delay deciding who would keep goals until the last minute and, having done that, then settle on a rookie keeper to face the fire.
Legendary Zimbabwe goalkeeper, Japhet M’parutsa, had warned us that the first 20 minutes would be key and if we could frustrate the Angolans in that period, we had a good chance of going through. But, somehow, we didn’t heed that call.
The 2013 Nations Cup chapter is another sad one, for our national game, but what has once again come out, loud and clear, is that we can’t short circuit our way to success.
As long as we have flawed structures where our Warriors’ coach is only confirmed into a substantive role ahead of the final qualifier as was the case in this campaign, and we don’t have continuity in an environment where coaches are chopped and changed now and again, the future will continue to be bleak.
As long as we don’t revive and support the grassroots structures that used to produce players like Peter Ndlovu and all the limelight and money goes into the senior national teams, we are running in the wrong direction and nothing will ever be achieved.
Right now our Under-17 team is embroiled in all sorts of problems regarding age-cheating and the disqualification of some players, including those who claim to be of the right age, from the team and, naturally, the discontent filtered through to the field and they lost at home on Saturday.
Asiagate has rumbled on, endlessly, and has come at a cost, even for this last campaign with key players sidelined and we hope that closure is brought to this controversy, as quickly as possible, so that our football can move forward without the burden of its weight.
This is the second Nations Cup finals that the Warriors will miss under this Zifa board’s watch and that’s not a good return by any means and having survived on the philanthropy of their president, Cuthbert Dube, it’s time the board asks itself serious questions and find answers, about how it intends to finance its operations as we go forward.
The latest failure by the Warriors is a huge blow because it takes away the feel-good factor that would have, like a magnet, attracted a lot of corporate players into the Zifa corner, in the event that we had qualified for the 2013 Nations Cup finals.
Any football association is judged by the success of its national teams and, in this area, the Zifa board’s performance has been poor and it hasn’t been helped by inflated egos, among the board members, poor handling of important portfolios like the coaching seat and finances that are in tatters.
The future, in the short term, doesn’t look good for our national football, but this is the time for real leaders at Zifa to stand up and be counted.