Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo in POLOKWANE, South Africa
VERSATILE Warriors star Jordan Zemura believes the senior team players should shoulder the blame for their upset 1-0 defeat by Lesotho in a 2026 World Cup Group C qualifier at Peter Mokaba stadium on Monday night.
That defeat at the hands of COSAFA rivals traditionally dominated by the Warriors, meant Zemura and his teammates finished with an unwanted record of finishing their 10 group games without a win.
The loss also underlined the inconsistency that has characterised this class of Warriors, who seemed to show promise when drawing with Rwanda and Nigeria in Huye at the start of the Group C qualifiers.
And straight from recording an impressive goalless draw against South Africa in Durban last Friday, Zimbabwe trooped into their final group game with a spring in their step.
Even the bookmakers had the odds in their favour.
But after bombarding the Lesotho area and asking the difficult questions in the game, the Warriors conceded, against the run of play, right in the last minute to end the campaign at the bottom of Group C with only five points and win-less in 10 games.
Coach Michael Nees gave a run to most of the players who don’t normally get a chance in the grind.
He blended them with such regulars like Marshall Munetsi and, later on, captain Marvelous Nakamba.
Despite giving Lesotho all sorts of problems and endlessly threatening to run riot, the Warriors eventually gave in.
The loss to the Crocodiles also meant that it was the first time that the Warriors lost twice to the same opponents in this group.
They had the reverse tie 0-2 last year with Jairos Tapera in charge.
With stinging criticism directed at Nees coming from everywhere, Zemura leaped to his coach’s defence, instead accepting to take the blame on his behalf.
“As a player, I think there should be nothing about the coach in these situations,” said Zemura.
“It’s nothing to do with the coach, why is the coach to blame here?
“You saw the game, the fans watched the game.
“You have 15 chances in front of the goal, and you have to go on and score.
“You’re not going to point at the coach for why we didn’t score.”
The Udinese man insists the Warriors should have made their dominance count.
“As a player, you have to take responsibility. You have to drive the level higher. I’m coming away more from Serie A and I know where, as players, we need to take the blame.
“We need to push each other as players to try as hard as we can.
“We’ve got players coming from the (English) Premier League, pushing and we all need to push harder.
“It’s nothing to do with the coach in this situation.
“If the fans want to point at anyone, they should point at the players.
“It’s nothing to do with the coach or the coaching staff.
“Today or another day, we score two or three goals and then you’ll be asking different questions.
“There’s nothing to do with the coach for that one. The players have to take responsibility.”
Zemura said Zimbabwe have the potential and can perform wonders in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations if they can start thinking before the “Warriors go down fighting syndrome.”
“I think some of us and many others have been around for a significant period now. We can’t always talk about the potential we have but rather now converting the potential into reality.
“We have so many quality players in our ranks. We can match any opponent if we focus.
“This is the time to do so. The World Cup qualification is now behind us. We take the lessons learnt and try to perfect the positives picked.
“Now we should really look at ourselves and start believing in our capabilities. We really have good quality and we should never put the handbrake on.
“This is the message we are now sharing as players so that we don’t always disappoint the nation.”
Zemura will be playing in his second AFCON this year after debuting in the 2021 edition played in 2022 in Cameroon, due to Covid-19 delays.
He will be ready to hold the hands of his British brigade peers who will be making their bow this year, including Tawanda Chirewa, Tawanda Maswanhise, Brandon Galloway and Andy Rinomhota.
Tadious, kindly take Jordan Zemura’s analysis of the game to your colleague Robson Sharuko, who is making himself look stupid by pouring vitriolic on the coach. He must listen to the wise words of Jordan Zemura. It’s a shame that Sharuko continues to display his immaturity in public like that. A whole Editor-in-Chief of a renowned tabloid behaving like a cadet scribe? He must feel ashamed.
For all those who watched the match, it’s clear the boys should have done more than better not the continued goal-mouth drama. No coach can be blamed for that nonsensical performance! can he be in the ground to whisper into the ears of every player to shoot when in such obvious positions? No and no again.