Who really wants tiki-taka

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
IT was by no means beautiful, at times it was very scrappy in Ndola on Saturday it was an eyesore, but then who really needs beauty when grit can win you a ticket to a major continental football tournament? Where Klaus Dieter Pagels’ tiki-taka had thrilled the eye, and reaped little rewards for the Warriors, Ian “Dibango” Gorowa’s rugged approach, spiced with both bravery and passion, powered the under-achieving team to one of its finest hours in the backyard of their biggest rivals.

The 1-0 victory over Zambia in a CHAN qualifier was historic, the first time the Warriors had beaten their northern neighbours in a competitive match in their den, and after the pain suffered in that 0-2 Cosafa Cup final loss at the hands of the same opponents, there was an added sweeter taste to Saturday’s stunning triumph.

The feeling here, after that Cosafa Cup final, was that the football gods had written one of their cruel scripts, where the better team, by a distance, had somehow been beaten, thanks to the fatal mistakes of their goalkeeper, whose shaky performance on the big stage put the brakes on his international career.

How fitting then that on the occasion of their return to the Levy Mwanawasa fortress, where the Zambians had been unbeaten since shifting base to that new stadium, the Warriors would field a ‘keeper, George Chigova, whose inspirational performance between the posts would play a big part in their successful redemption mission. The Zambians will, no doubt, remind us that they have won the Nations Cup and are still in the running for a place in the 2014 World Cup, milestone achievements that cannot be erased by failure in a CHAN qualifier, and we have to give them the frosty comfort, and imaginary consolation, that all this will bring to their broken hearts.

But they will be lying to their hearts if they tell you that the loss in Ndola doesn’t hurt and their want away coach, Harve Renard, will include this on his list of failures after he had publicly stated that winning a ticket to the 2014 CHAN finals in South Africa was one of his three big missions for Chipolopolo this year.

He is likely to fail in his other big mission, to take Zambia to the final qualifying round of the 2014 World Cup, with the odds heavily stacked against his men when they plunge into the cauldron of Kumasi next month hoping to stop the Ghanaian Black Stars from winning, a result that will push Chipolopolo through.

If there is a priceless lesson that we gave him on Saturday, and which could come handy on their trip to Ghana, then it has to be the conviction we carried to Ndola that away teams don’t necessarily come into football contests like poor lambs being driven to the slaughter chamber but can rise and fight for a victory on foreign land.

For Gorowa this was a defining result, the kind of which can make the career of an international coach, and he fully deserved it, after setting the right team and using the right tactics that were a mixture of caution and the occasional adventure.

There were many who had questioned his credentials, especially after the poor performance by his men in their home game against Mauritius, but these critics conveniently forgot the destabilising effect that the strike by the players, just on the eve of the tie, had on their performance.

For a team that continues to be bankrolled by one man, Zifa president Cuthbert Dube, it’s very likely that there will be problems, now and again, when it comes to the servicing of the costs related to running its operations and everyone hopes that the incoming government will give due consideration to the Warriors’ cause.

Without the in-house problems that rocked their camp, on the eve of their home match against Mauritius, the Warriors had put the gulf in class that exists between them and the Indian Ocean islanders into context, with a comfortable 3-0 victory in Mauritius.

But with the goalless home draw against Zambia coming in the week just after the depressing draw against Mauritius, the critics sharpened their swords and turned on Gorowa, questioning his credentials, and there were even muted nostalgic choruses about the beauty of Pagels’ tiki-taka against the beast of Dibango’s direct approach.

One thing that the critics failed to pick, even against the background of those depressing back-to-back home draws, was that the Warriors, under Gorowa, were taking steps back to find their true identity, where they gave very little at the back, the virtues which had swept them to their first Nations Cup appearance under Sunday Chidzambwa exactly 10 years ago.

Where they had leaked goals, in every match, under Pagels, they were beginning to be a very good defensive outfit and in the three games, two against Mauritius and one against Zambia, they had only conceded one goal, a blunder by their ‘keeper Tafadzwa Dube.

Crucially, they hadn’t conceded against Zambia at Rufaro and that opened a window of hope because, as long as they would keep their defensive shape intact, something that Gorowa was doing well, they had a chance to win because any goal they scored in Ndola was priceless.

Gorowa noted that while Dube was an excellent ‘keeper, the Zambians had tried, during dead balls, to distract his attention by taking advantage of their height and it’s an area that had concerned him, going into Ndola, where the referee was likely to be lenient to the hosts and fouls on the short ‘keeper would possibly go unpunished.

To his credit, Gorowa was brave and he chose the giant frame of Chigova, the best ‘keeper in the country in terms of the goals conceded ratio, and he was repaid with an authoritative and towering performance by the young DeMbare ‘keeper.

Once your defence is intact, everything pretty much sorts itself out and while the Warriors’ performance did not flow or did not sweep you out of your feet with its beauty, it was very effective and they ground Zambia with their discipline and courage and, when they got the break, they scored a beautiful goal.

Ironically, Gorowa had told me, on the eve of the team’s departure to Zambia, that he felt their best hopes of opening up the Zambians to get a goal in Ndola would come from creating something down the flanks and picking the right balls into the area.

He was very technical, and tactical, in his language that day as he said that the absence of a really gifted playmaker who could impose himself on the game meant that our chances of cutting through the middle, to open the Zambians, were not good.

He laid down his cards, that day, that he would roam the flanks, the way fast bowlers in cricket repeatedly attack the off stump, and I felt impressed when I saw his team score from one such move when they battled to win possession the flank and then dipped a beauty of a pass into the penalty area where Charles Sibanda was well positioned to score a fine goal.

Once that had gone in, even when there was almost half an hour of play still left, one knew this was it for the Zambians because, with the discipline that the Zimbabweans had at the back, it was always going to be difficult to score twice in that pressure cooker.

For Gorowa, his mission isn’t complete but is just beginning and while the win in Zambia deserve the celebrations that have greeted it, we should not lose focus that the ultimate goal is to build a team that not only qualifies for the 2015 Nations Cup finals but makes it a habit to play at such big tournaments.

On Saturday in Ndola, Gorowa and his band of home-based Warriors showed us that nothing is impossible, including a win in Ndola.