Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo in POLOKWANE,South Africa
WARRIORS star Jordan Zemura believes the players should shoulder the blame in their 1-0 loss to Lesotho in Zimbabwe’s last 2026 World Cup qualifier at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Monday night.
Straight from recording an impressive goalless draw against South Africa in Durban on Friday last week, Zimbabwe trooped into this one with a spring in their step and even bookmakers pointed 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 winless in 10 games.
Coach Michael Nees gave a run to most of the players who don’t normally get a chance in the grind plus the regulars like Zemura, 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 and for the first time during what has been a disastrous campaign for them lost twice to the same opponent having lost the reverse tie 0-2 last year.
With stinging criticism directed at Nees coming from everywhere, Zemura leaped to his defence, instead accepting to take the blame of his behalf.
“As a player, ai 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 and score. You’re not going to point at the coach for why we didn’t score.
“As a player, you have to take responsibility. You have to drive the level higher.
“I’m coming more away from the 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, 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.”
He said:
“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.”
