dyton mupawaenda
WE put the Warriors story on our front page on Friday because we know the significance of this team to everyone who calls himself or herself a Zimbabwean.
We also knew the importance of the game they were set to play against a Kenyan side who have a history of being our bogey side given we have only beaten them once in 14 international battles.
We really felt that we needed to give our boys that final push for them to secure a deserved slot at the AFCON finals in Morocco next year.
We knew that a defeat would leave us in a very difficult position given that we needed to win our final game, against Cameroon, in their own territory for us to qualify.
We are not saying that we can’t win in Cameroon but we are saying that given the two choices – a draw against Kenya or victory over the Indomitable Lions in Yaounde – it’s very clear that the first choice is better.
Well, our boys did it by securing the point they needed to return to the AFCON finals for the first time since the FIFA suspension was lifted.
Well done Michael Nees and your coaching staff.
The German coach is not someone like Reinhard Fabisch
He is not a firebrand like the late Fabisch but is a cool and calculated tactician who lets his work do all the talking.
He prefers to be in the background while the results speak for him.
He is a good tactician and his decision to throw in his first-choice central defenders — Munashe Garananga, Gerald Takwara and Teenage Hadebe — into the starting XI against Kenya, in a game where our defence was going to be the difference between qualifying and failing, was a masterstroke.
His belief in the talents of the young and exciting Tawanda Maswanhise, giving him a starting place in such a big game, was a courageous and brilliant move.
Other coaches would have gone with caution but Nees trusted what he was seeing at the training ground and decided that if the boy they call PickAndPay (from his initials TM) was good enough to play for Motherwell, then he was good enough to play for the Warriors.
Maswanhise showed that we have serious talent out there, especially in the diaspora, which must be harnessed and brought into the Warriors to add real value.
In one game, he silenced all those who have been making some silly noises questioning the talent of these youngsters, the majority of whom are found in England.
Imagine if Tawanda Chirewa was in that team?
We have a lot of time between now and the AFCON finals in December next year to really tap into all those boys out there and see if we can integrate them into our team.
We don’t want to go to the AFCON finals and come back home after the group matches.
We want to go there and compete to try and even win the title.
If Zambia did it, why can’t we also dream big?
Online Reporter