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Eddie Chikamhi Harare Bureau
THE Warriors learnt some tough lessons when they had to fight for a point in Swaziland last Friday and their coach Callisto Pasuwa has asked for maximum concentration from his players as they look to get it right as the teams clash again in the return Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the National Sports Stadium this afternoon.
Zimbabwe were expecting back to back wins to bolster their campaign for next year’s finals to be hosted by Gabon but they got a rude awakening in Lobamba when they conceded an early goal to Sihlangu and then ended up chasing the game in the battle for the control of Group L.
The Warriors, with all the foreign-based players in their set-up, look stronger on paper compared to their opponents yet they never got their game going in Swaziland.
Pasuwa and his charges were busy at work yesterday trying to correct their shortcomings and judging by the mood in the camp it could turn out a different game this afternoon.
Zimbabwe are likely to ring a few changes to their team with players such as Netherlands based midfielder Marvelous Nakamba and Kuda Mahachi who were not used in the first leg likely to be given a run to jazz up the midfield.
But Pasuwa’s biggest worry is the defence which has conceded early goals in the last two games and complicated his game plan.
Zimbabwe were already a goal down two minutes into the game on Friday when Felix Badenhorst headed from the blind side in a case of poor tracking by the defenders.
The goal was a stark reminder of the previous match at home to Guinea when goalkeeper Washington Arubi gifted the West Africans with a second minute goal.
“I’ve been preaching to the players we need to have maximum concentration when we start our games. Remember against Guinea we conceded a goal in the first minutes and for the second time against Swaziland we did the same, which isn’t on in terms of our play.
“It’ll disrupt everything in terms of how we want to play. We end up looking for an equaliser and not playing according to what we want to play.
“So we talked about it, we were knocking sense to the boys and everyone in the team to say the moment the referee blows his first whistle we need maximum concentration.
“Remember we played Swaziland in their own backyard and we saw how they played. They were very mobile and most of the time we were second to the ball.
“We need as much as we can to close them down. In football it doesn’t matter you’re good offensively, you need to be also good defensively. That’s modern football for us and we need to rectify ourselves in terms of going for goal, we need to have goals coming,” said Pasuwa.
Zimbabwe will be hoping to make use of home advantage to dismantle the visitors who demonstrated three days ago that they are not a team to be easily bullied through their close knit type of play.
Sweden-based striker Matthew Rusike was the only injury worry when he showed some signs of discomfort during yesterday’s training at the National Sports Stadium.
There were also concerns of fatigue on Khama Billiat and Cuthbert Malajila who had a hectic travel arrangement with their club Mamelodi Sundowns last week.
But the rest of the key players like Knowledge Musona, Costa Nhamoinesu, Nyasha Mushekwi, Danny Phiri and goalkeeper Tatenda Mukuruva are raring to go.
The Warriors are still in contention for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations ticket after the group standings remained unchanged at the end of the first round matches over the weekend as Malawi held Guinea 0-0 in the other match.
Swaziland and Zimbabwe are tied on five points but Sihlangu are on top courtesy of superior goal difference after three games while Malawi and Guinea are on two points each. Warriors skipper Willard Katsande yesterday said they have done their homework.
“The result between Guinea and Malawi shows that football is improving everywhere in the world. If you can see Malawi travelling all the way to West Africa and coming back with a draw it means football is improving. So all we need to do is to focus on ourselves and try to win our home game and be three points on top,” said Katsande.
“But I think we’re ready to play the return leg. As you saw the boys fought very hard against Swaziland away. Now we’re playing at home, we have an added advantage of our fans and I think it’s going to work in our favour.
“The technical team was busy rectifying our mistakes and trying to overcome them. Nothing really went wrong in Swaziland, it’s just that we conceded an early goal, which isn’t acceptable in the early minutes of the game.”
derick.khumalo