Warriors edge Comoros 1-0 in Cosafa Cup opener

DESPITE shambolic preparations that culminated in the Zimbabwe senior national team squad changed and chopped three times before the team left for the Cosafa Cup in South Africa, the Warriors scrapped through a narrow 1-0 win over Comoros in a match that was played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha, Durban yesterday afternoon.

Few people expected the Warriors to launch a serious threat to Comoros in their opening match of the annual tournament given that the Warriors literally walked into the match without prior preparations such as friendly matches.

In fact, the squad barely had meaningful training sessions to bond, gel and work on combinations and tactics. The Warriors only needed a 54th-minute Michael Tapera well taken effort from inside to collect maximum points after dominating the match in both halves.

Following a good exchange of passes, the Manica Diamonds striker got an inviting delivery from his left-footed club mate Farai Banda to make it count for the country’s flagship football side. It was a match in which Warriors hard running skipper Godkowns Murwira was voted Man of the Match.

In his post-match interview, Warriors head coach Jairos Tapera said: “I know South Africa is for us all. We have support all over South Africa, we are brothers. We were more organised, we moved the ball, and they were just giving us the opportunity to move the ball around. In terms of positional play we were much better. When we went into the second half we realised that we needed to do something to hurt these guys because they wanted to mark. We told our two wingers to stay out there and it really worked for us. Our left wing was excellent and it gave us a cross and the right wing which was not functioning gave us a goal. We identified the weaker points of the opponent and we exploited them very well.”

On Sunday, Tapera and his men will face Zambia before taking on Kenya next Tuesday

Leading to the tournament, the Warriors lost two of their qualifiers against Lesotho and South Africa in disappointing fashion. They lost 2-0 to Lesotho before a 3-1 loss to South Africa a few days later.

Tapera is on record saying he wants to use the Cosafa tournament to bring back smiles on the Zimbabwe football fraternity.

Comoros collected their first-ever win in the Cosafa Cup after victory over Seychelles in the 2009 tournament in Zimbabwe, their second appearance at the regional showpiece.

They performed admirably in that event, also securing a draw against Botswana, but a 3-0 loss to Eswatini meant that they bowed out in the first round. It was an improvement on their first showing in 2008 when they lost all three games without scoring a goal. They did not compete between 2013 and 2017.

The team returned for the 2018 Cosafa Cup and although they took only one point from their three games, it was an improved showing. The side drew 1-1 with Seychelles, before a 3-0 loss to Mozambique and a 1-0 reversal at the hands of Madagascar.

That would be the catalyst for a first-ever knockout appearance in 2019 as they topped their three-team pool following the withdrawal of Angola after a win against Mauritius (2-1) and a draw with Eswatini (2-2). That set up a quarterfinal with a powerful Zimbabwe side where they lost 2-0, before another defeat at the hands of Malawi in the Plate semi-finals.

They were forced to withdraw from the 2021 tournament that was held in Gqeberha, and suffered first-round exits in 2022 and 2023. The steady improvement of the side has been perfectly illustrated in their qualification for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, the first time they appeared at the continental event. They beat Ghana in the group stages but lost to the hosts in the round of 16.

-@FungaiMuderere