dyton mupawaenda
Tadious Manyepo in BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa
IT’S been four days of hell for the Warriors.
They arrived in South Africa with so much hope but left a dejected lot.
Before 3pm on Friday last week, only two points separated them from surprise Group C leaders Rwanda after two match days.
But they left the neighbouring country five points behind the same team who still topped the pool after four rounds of matches.
The Warriors expected to push Lesotho aside in their first of the double-header 2026 World Cup qualifiers at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg before engaging South Africa at Free State four days later.
They were eyeing for at least four points from the two fixtures to firm up their hunt for a place in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America in 2026.
But their nine-day stay in South Africa was all in vain after failing to pick up even a single point from both games.
Yet both defeats were, in a way, self-inflicted.
As the home-away-from-home team against Lesotho, Jairos Tapera and his men enjoyed tremendous support as the Zimbabwean community thronged to the Soweto arena.
But they put up a rather flat showing, making elementary errors at the back and Lesotho duly punished them, taking with them the full points following a shock 2-0 victory.
With South Africa away to Nigeria where they forced a 1-1 draw, the Warriors would have hoped to take advantage of Bafana Bafana’s fatigue, Hugo Broos’ side having travelled more than 9 000km to and from Nigeria.
But they froze before an electrifying, at the sold-out 46 000-seater Free State Stadium, with substitute Thapelo Morena’s brace and Aqraam Rayners’ strike ensuring the Zimbabweans, who scored their consolation through Tawanda Chirewa, walked out of it empty-handed. Chirewa was probably the highlight of this Zimbabwean side on a dull evening in Bloemfontein.
It was another episode that saw the Warrior’s defence making shocking blunders, Munashe Garan’anga failing to clear his lines and goalkeeper Geoffrey Chitsumba making another howler for the hosts’ two goals.
One would feel for Tapera, who was just roped in to superintend over a team selected by the ZIFA Normalisation Committee yet none of its members holds any coaching qualification.
But minus those calamitous mistakes, Zimbabwe looked like a decent outfit in both games.
With six matches still to be played in this campaign, Tapera said all is not lost after picking “significant positives”.
“We picked some positives in many areas that I think we can build from with time. Well, there is a team (Benin) who are on seven points right now but they were in bottom place,” said Tapera.
“They only won two games and they are joint top now. Let’s take what has happened here as the starting point where we can launch from. If we get organised, we will be able to do well in our next assignments.
“In terms of goals conceded, the two games haven’t been good at all. But in terms of overall performance, I think we have somewhere to start. I respect the boys for their performances during the two games even though we lost. In terms of performance, it wasn’t bad.
“When you assemble as a team, everybody wants you to win. We wanted to play as a team but you are coming from the ban and you are getting into these games, you have these youngsters coming into the game who have to gel with the senior players you have, I think we will get there”.
Even South African gaffer Broos acknowledged that Zimbabwe could not be as bad as the two results could suggest.
“First of all, I am very happy with the results. Zimbabwe were very dangerous sometimes in terms of transition,” he said after the game.
The 2026 World Cup qualifiers will only be back in March and one hopes the ZIFA Normalisation Committee would have paved the way for a new executive and put in place systems to revive the game. The Normalisation Committee have also performed woefully since its appointment by FIFA last year.
Online Reporter