Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE Warriors might be dishing out below par performances, much to the disappointment of their fans, but their oneness stands out for defender Munashe Garananga.
Zimbabwe lost their back-to-back 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda.
With only two games before the conclusion of the qualifiers, and sitting at the basement of Group C with four points in eight outings, the Warriors are already out of contention for a place at the global showpiece in North America next year.
They have already wired themselves to use the remainder of the qualifiers to prepare for the African Cup of Nations in Morocco this December.
The lack of a fighting mentality has been worrisome though but Garananga yesterday said the team has something to build on.
“It’s good to collect wins as a team. But, in the disappointing absence of the wins, I think we have seen some really good positives.
“I think we are connecting well as a team.
‘‘The more we are playing together, the more we are becoming a unit which is formidable.
“What we need to improve is the performance and I have no doubt we are on track. We need to work on ourselves and get to picking wins, get accustomed to winning as we prepare for the AFCON finals.”
Garananga said because of the unity, the Warriors are starting to look like a focused team pointing to their overall showing against Rwanda as testament to that.
“When it comes to playing well, yeah we are getting there. In the match against Rwanda, we dominated quite well but it’s always about the result.
“Rwanda actually had one chance from the set-piece and they scored.
“We should have done better there. I think those are some of the areas we also need to work on.
“I am sure the more we stay together as a team, the more we get to fix some of these things and I believe we will be better going forward.”
Zimbabwe will play Lesotho and South Africa in the final window of what are now academic World Cup qualifiers.
But, the games will show them where they are headed as they intensify their AFCON rehearsals.
At the AFCON in Morocco, Zimbabwe will play South Africa, Egypt and Angola.
