Online Reporter
Women’s football in Zimbabwe saw a resurgence 15 years ago after the side won the Southern African championship and also qualified for the Olympic Games football tournament in Brazil in 2016.
Zimbabwe have always been a competitive side and finally broke their duck in the Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship with victory in 2011, which ended South Africa’s fine run of success in the tournament.
They reached the final in the inaugural competition in 2002 but lost to South Africa 2-1 in the decider in Harare.
They had stormed into the final with four straight wins in which they scored a staggering 36 goals, including a then-competition record 15-0 victory over Lesotho, in their opener.
They finished top of their pool again in 2006 after two matches against their only pool opponent, Angola, but came unstuck in the semi-finals, this time with a 4-1 loss to South Africa.
They were beaten to third place by Zambia when they went down 2- 1 in the bronze-medal match.
The 2008 championship in Angola provided little joy, but they finally lifted the trophy in 2011 on home soil when they proved a dominant force again and beat South Africa 1-0 in the final.
They could not quite repeat that feat in Bulawayo in 2017 as they took the best runners-up spot in their pool with victory over Madagascar (4-0) and draws with Zambia (1-1) and Malawi (3-3), before walloping East African guest nation Kenya 4-0 in the semi-finals.
That set up a final against old foes South Africa, but Zimbabwe finished on the losing side by a 2-1 scoreline.
In 2018, the side failed to make it out of their pool despite two wins over Eswatini (3- 0) and Namibia (1-0), their fate sealed by a 2-1 loss to East African guest nation, Uganda.
They raced through the pool stages in 2019 with wins over Angola (4-1), Mozambique (4-0) and Eswatini (7-0), but South Africa once again proved their nemesis in the semi-finals as Zimbabwe lost 3-1.
They did claim the bronze medal, though, with a 3-0 success over Botswana in the third-place play-off.
The side unexpectedly battled in 2020, losing both of their pool games 1-0 to Tanzania and Botswana, and again in 2021 when they did not make it past the group stages.
The country did not compete in the 2022 event as they were under Fifa suspension but returned in 2023 and finished fourth after losing the bronze-medal match to Mozambique (0-2).
They earned seven points to top their pool but then were defeated 1-0 by Zambia in the semi-finals.
They were back again in 2024 but could not get out of their three-team pool following a win over Lesotho (3-0) and a 1-0 defeat to Mozambique. Cosafa Media/ Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Best finish: Winners (2011) Fifa Ranking: 129 Caf Ranking: 20 Last five Cosafa tournaments: 2020 – Group Stages 2021 – Group Stages 2022 – Did not enter 2023 – Fourth 2024 – Group Stages
