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Tadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE and Namibia will trade hosting roles away from their homes when they face-off in back-to-back 2025 Africa Cup of Nations Group J qualifying assignments next month.
Both COSAFA rivals are slowly becoming accustomed to playing international football away from home as neither side have approved stadiums to host high-level games.
The Warriors are seeking to return to the biannual 24-team continental contest after last featuring at the 2022 event in Cameroon.
That Nations Cup assignment came two months before Zimbabwe were suspended from international football by FIFA.
Last year, FIFA lifted the suspension, making the Warriors eligible to participate in the qualifiers for the next edition of the Nations Cup, which is scheduled for Morocco early next year.
The Warriors, playing the qualifiers for the first time since 2021, are under a new coach — German Michael Nees — and will fancy their chances, especially after picking two points in as many opening fixtures against Kenya and Cameroon in Uganda early this month.
After playing a goalless draw against Kenya when the Harambee Stars were the home side at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala, the Warriors hosted Cameroon at the same facility, with the match ending goalless too, four days later.
Namibia are the only team in Group J, still without a point after losing to both Cameroon and Kenya in their first two qualifiers.
The battles scheduled for October 10 and 14 have thus assumed greater significance for Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Both the Warriors and Brave Warriors will be seeking to move into a good qualification space when they play against each other twice at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.
Namibia will be the hosts in the first of the back-to-back meetings on October 10 in a 3pm kick-off, with Zimbabwe returning the favour four days later in a night match at the same venue.
ZIFA have confirmed that they had settled for Orlando Stadium again in a brief statement also announcing the kick-off times.
The home of South African Premiership giants Orlando Pirates was the venue at which the Warriors hosted Lesotho in a 2026 World Cup qualifier, albeit, in a disappointing 2-0 defeat in June.
“Namibia first hosted the Warriors on Thursday October 10 at Orlando Stadium at 3pm.
“Zimbabwe then host Namibia at the same stadium on Monday October 14 at 6pm in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers,” read the ZIFA statement.
Both teams have become accustomed to hosting their opponents away from home and it will be interesting to see who gets it right as this will be their first time to face the same opponent at the same stadium in the same competition within four days.
A lot has changed since the Warriors’ nightmarish defeat by Lesotho at Orlando stadium with Nees taking over from Jairos Tapera and some of the players, who missed the World Cup qualifier now set to be available.
Going into this game that turned into a huge debacle for the Zimbabweans, the Warriors had recorded two draws, just like they have now, against Rwanda and Nigeria at the Huye Stadium in Rwanda.
But the loss that was followed by another 3-1 defeat to South Africa four days later at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein meant Zimbabwe’s chances to make it to the expanded global fiesta to be jointly hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada now hang by a thread.
And the Warriors won’t be in the mood to surrender to Namibia as they seek to return to the AFCON finals.
Both Zimbabwe and Namibia have an expansive population living in South Africa and both games are most likely to attract huge crowds.
Online Reporter