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ZIMBABWE are out of the African Nations Cup UK soccer tournament following inconsistent performances in the Group games at the weekend.
Coach Jabulani “JB” Nare took responsibility for the early exit and resigned straight after the embarrassment.
The Zimbabweans finished fourth in the five-team group at the end of the pool matches despite posting one of the group games’ biggest victories.
Led by 19-year-old Gerald Chikodza, who is based in Sweden, they mauled Ethiopia 8-1 in their third match at the West Ham Memorial Grounds in London.
But this was not enough to save their campaign as they had opened the tournament on Saturday with straight losses to Sierra Leone and Senegal.
Zimbabwe narrowly lost 0-1 to Sierra Leone before going down 2-5 to Senegal.
The Zimbabweans’ performance was a far cry from their promising campaign last year when they reached the quarter-finals.
And Nare was hoping to better that performance and go a step further to reach the semi-finals. But that plan was thrown into disarray from the onset when his charges went down to the bogey Sierra Leone who knocked them out of the competition last year.
The Zimbabweans’ task was further complicated by a huge loss to Senegal.
Chikodza and Nkosi Mzingwane were on target for Zimbabwe.
The Southern Africans raised their faint hopes when they started the second day of the tournament with a crushing victory over Ethiopia. The big win was built around a hat-trick from the lanky Chikodza, who was released by Barclays Premiership side Crystal Palace before going to try his luck in Sweden.
Maxwell “MaRhino” Dube and Madinda Ndlovu (Jnr) scored a brace each.
Another 19-year-old prospect Freddie Mutumbi completed the rout.
But a disappointing 0-3 loss to tournament favourites Morroco, who fielded their fringe players from their Under-20 squad currently in France for the 2015 Toloun Under-20 soccer tournament, saw Zimbabwe crash out of the tournament.
And Nare lost his job.
“We had a lot of injuries and could not get enough personnel to replace the injured guys. So the lack of depth in our team was our major downfall,” he said.
Nare announced his departure to the Team Zimbabwe UK committee hours later at a meeting held to review the team’s performance.
Online Reporter