By Sheldon Hakata
AS Zimbabweans partied and revelled in the senior men’s national soccer team, The Warriors’, qualification for the 2019 AFCON tournament, a certain reality was looming large on the horizon; that it is high time we look beyond celebrating mere qualification for such tournaments.
The Warriors had minutes before reminded the Red Devils of Congo-Brazzaville that history now matters little in the fast evolving game of football.
This was the same Congo that had yet to lose a match against The Warriors.
The heartbreaking events of that now infamous tie in 1991 at the National Sports Stadium had been still fresh in the minds of soccer loving Zimbabweans.
The 1991 ‘disaster’, as it turned out on Sunday, was indeed a fluke, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.
It was not a free flowing performance as Warriors gaffer Sunday Chidzambwa admitted after the match on Sunday, but gritty outings win matches.
And there are many lessons that will have to be learnt by Chidzambwa and his team.
Nerves of steel are surely needed if Sunday’s rather indifferent performance is anything to go by.
Prior to the tie, Congo-Brazzavile’s Brazilian coach Valdo Finho had sought to play mind games, another aspect that The Warriors will have to contend with in June.
“Congo-Brazzaville came here and did it in 1991 and the team is here to do it again,” said Finho.
Warriors captain Knowledge Musona and many others in the team, who dispatched the hapless Congo-Brazzaville, were just one-year-olds or less in 1991 when that horror happened.
Some read the history that Congo-Brazzaville extinguished the nation’s hopes back then.
In booking their place at the AFCON finals to be held in Egypt from June 21 to July 19 2019, The Warriors amassed a hefty 11 points from six qualifying matches while the DRC finished second with nine points.
The dark cloud that had been hanging over the country was vapourised by the sunset emerging from Cairo.
Everyone remembered and paid their respects to those who lost their lives to Cyclone Idai.
The players wore black armbands in honour of brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers who perished in the storm.
For those we lost in Cyclone Idai, those missing, those whose lives were changed forever after losing everything acquired in their lives, those asking questions and finding no answers, The Warriors did everything to reduce the pain in this difficult moment.
Great moments are born from great opportunities and that is what Sunday’s game was all about.
Skipper Musona and talisman Khama Billiat set The Warriors on a winner with two spectacular first-half strikes.
Overally, Zimbabwe did not play well.
The team struggled the entire second-half to cope with the uneven turf at the giant sports stadium.
The Warriors did not pose much threat to the Red Devils as their play was disjointed.
“Sometimes in football you have to play for a result. We played to qualify, we did not play to entertain,” coach Chidzambwa said.
The team is left with three months to fine tune ahead of the tournament.
It is Zimbabwe’s fourth time playing at Africa’s premier football showpiece following appearances in 2004, 2006 and 2017.
The Warriors always returned home after three group matches because of failure to qualify in group stages.
The nation expects to go beyond celebrating qualifying for the AFCON tournament.
Starting with this 32nd edition in Egypt, the target is reaching later stages of the finals. However, reaching knockout stages in such big tournaments means a lot, considering the quality of opposition teams. Zimbabwe is seeing the emergence of genuinely talented football stars, amazing young players who will grow into stars good for the future of the senior national soccer team.
The duo of Warriors fullbacks, Ronald Pfumbidzai and Tendai Darikwa, who are very much attack-minded, endured a torrid time from Congo wingers Junior Makiese and Merveil Ndocky.
The Warriors defence should be prepared for more talented and deadly forwards in Egypt.
With the calibre of teams that have qualified for the AFCON, The Warriors will be up against some of the best on the continent.
The Warriors’ approach on Sunday will not work when facing, for example, Senegal, Egypt or Ivory Coast.
There will ultimately be need to balance the defence and attack while maintaining shape if they are to make an impact in Egypt.
Considering the format of this expanded tournament, featuring 24 teams for the first time, the Warriors are likely to face some tougher opposition.
The teams will be divided into six groups of four teams each.
The top two teams in each group, along with the best four third-placed teams, advance to the knockout phase, the round of 16.
The 24 teams will be placed in four pots based on Confederation of African Football (CAF) national team rankings for the draw in Cairo on April 12.
The recent achievement triggered the debate whether the current crop of players are better than the Dream Team of the 1990s.
That was the time when a generation of Warriors set a benchmark with the never-say-die spirit; current coach Sunday Chidzambwa was assistant to German gaffer Reinhard Fabisch.
Even when it appeared the battle had been lost, with time not on their side, clock showing timeout, those boys believed in winning.
Fans called them ‘The Dream Team’.
The current Warriors coaches and players admit they are not the real deal yet. The Warriors started very well and finished well, thus giving credit to the players and the coaches as well.
They have had an exceptionally good campaign in these qualifying stages.
The key is having good preparations and the rest will fall into place.
Meanwhile Castle Lager Premier League action commences this weekend across the country.
Qualified Teams:
Angola, Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Namibia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa, Zimbabwe.