adminPetros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
AS they turn attention to their third African Cup of Nations finals next year, Zimbabwe’s Warriors will wear one of the underdog tags as they are currently the lowest-ranked team among the 16 sides that will feature at the continental soccer showpiece in Gabon.
Callisto Pasuwa’s men will join 15 other teams, including hosts Gabon, for the draw of the Nations Cup finals, which is scheduled for Libreville on October 19.
The Warriors’ fall from grace in the last few years has seen them tumble out of the top 100 on the FIFA World rankings and subsequently drop from the top 30 on the continent.
Zimbabwe are currently rated number 33 on the African rankings, 110 in the world having moved two places up on the August rankings after accumulating 338 points.
Algeria, who headline the quartet of North African teams that have booked their places at the Gabon tournament are still Africa’s best team.
Cape Verde Islands are the only side in Africa’s top 10 to have failed to qualify for the Gabon tourney.
One of the biggest casualties were the Nigerian Super Eagles who have also sensationally fallen out of Africa’s top 10 and are now 16th .
Pasuwa, who returned home early yesterday with his squad, had always wanted his Warriors to maintain their unbeaten run in the qualifiers and match the record set by the late Reinhard Fabisch’s Dream Team of 1994 that humiliated South Africa’s Bafana Bafana 4-1 at the National Sports Stadium on their way to completing an unbeaten run.
Jaded in the first half, the Warriors never fully recovered from their early setback and fell 1-0 to Guinea in Conakry on Sunday night.
Once they settled they were a better side in the second period, but the damage had already been done.
But that defeat also means the Warriors are not likely to gain any ground on the rankings and they will go into the hat in Libreville as the lowest ranked side and just a point behind Togo.
The Warriors can, however, draw some comfort from the fact that they have not been very lengthy absentees from the showpiece.
That tag will be worn by the Cranes of Uganda who needed the guidance of a seasoned Serbian coach Milutin “Micho’’ Sredojevic to finally end nearly four decades of waiting to be at the Nations Cup.
Burkina Faso also qualified from Group D following a dramatic climax to the qualification campaign on Sunday.
The Burkina Faso Stallions scored nine minutes into stoppage time in Ouagadougou to edge battling Botswana 2-1 and top the standings on the head-to-head rule after a match in which three players were red-carded.
In Kampala, Uganda overcame the Comoros 1-0 before a capacity 45 000 crowd to finish second and clinch one of the two places reserved for the best runners-up.
Micho was also over the moon as it had always been his mission to bring glory to Uganda with the former Orlando Pirates and Al Hilal coach having made his intention clear from the start of the year when he used the CHAN tournament to identify some of the players to rope into his main Cranes squad.
Dominant against a limited Comoran team, Uganda took the lead after 35 minutes through Belgium-based teenage midfielder Farouk Miya who played in the CHAN squad before moving to Europe. He had a shot parried by outstanding goalkeeper Ali Ahamada in a one-on-one situation, but got a second chance from the rebound and fired into the net from close range. A tension-easing second goal eluded the home team, however, as they remained on top during the second half at the Mandela National Stadium.
But in other matches that had no impact on qualification, Congo beat Guinea-Bissau 1-0 in Brazzaville and Zambia and Kenya drew 1-1 in Ndola in Group E and Malawi beat Swaziland 1-0 in Blantyre
2017 African Nations Cup finalists (African rankings in brackets):
Algeria (1), Ghana (2), Cote d’Ivoire (3), Senegal (4); Egypt (5); Tunisia (6); Morocco (7), Cameroon (8); DRC (9); Mali (11); Uganda (14); Burkina Faso (18); Guinea Bissau (19); Gabon (28); Togo (32); Zimbabwe (33).
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