ESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction.
Zimbabwe senior men’s team has returned home empty-handed and join their fans as spectators for the remainder of the tournament after failing to rise to the occasion and mount a serious challenge at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon where they fell by the wayside at the first hurdle.
The Warriors, who finished with only a single point earned from their drawn match against Algeria, have failed to progress beyond the group stages for the third time in as many attempts at the biennial competition. This time around they had the unenviable distinction of finishing without a win, with the fewest number of points and an unhealthy goal difference compared to the preceding Classes of 2004 and 2006 before them, effectively condemning them to finishing bottom of the pile in Group B.
On the whole, we fell terribly short when serious questions were asked of our team as a collective unit. We were our own worst enemies as we shot ourselves in the foot following our failure to build on the momentum gathered from our promising 2-2 opener against the Desert Foxes.
But then, our problems started right from the beginning when we dropped two crucial points and allowed the Riyad Mahrez-inspired side to salvage one as we failed to protect and cling onto our lead, which we went into halftime carrying, and see out the remaining eight or so minutes.
Because defending usually requires intricacy and painstaking detail, it, therefore, becomes difficult to defend for long periods; especially when under a relentless barrage of attacks from opponents.
During the current English Premier League campaign, Manchester United have thrown away points from leading positions to finish with draws at the death of games against Stoke City (home), Arsenal and Everton as they defended a single-goal lead.
Way back in 2004, as CAPS United romped to trailblazing league glory in style, their then coach, Charles Mhlauri, showed us and we all marveled at the art of defending a lead; which all basically revolved around ball retention and possession-based play so as to control the rhythm and tempo of the game.
From then on, we tumbled in our subsequent two group matches and the wheels came off.
After conceding late in the Group opener as Algeria levelled matters, a disturbing recurring pattern played itself out when we faced Senegal and Tunisia as we conceded early in quick succession.
It marked the beginning of the end of our continued participation at AFCON as our dream of progressing to the quarter-finals went up in smoke.
We made mistakes against Algeria and Senegal punished us for those blips and blunders, while Tunisia ruthlessly put us to the sword for our sloppy and faulty play.
At such level of competition getting punished for such error-riddled performances becomes inevitable.
In all our three matches we tended to switch off and lapsed in concentration at the crucial moments of the game.
The Warriors struggled to keep shape and form during both their defence and attack duties that we often lost structure, especially when defending as we looked perilously vulnerable each time opponents came at us.
Although we looked both tactically and technically inferior for long periods, our positional discipline was also not up to scratch as Onismor Bhasera conceded the free-kick, which Senegal midfielder, Henri Saviet converted for their second goal, in a central area; a territory where captain, Willard Katsande should have been roaming.
Against Tunisia, for their first goal we were too crowded in our own box as we defended a corner kick that went in off a deflection on Bhasera and Elisha Muroiwa. We had no yellow shirt floating on the edge of the box to clear the danger as the ball fell kindly to forward Niam Sliti who gladly obliged by stabbing the ball home.
Coach Kalisto Pasuwa’s men also offered little resistance and conceded four goals from a rapid Tunisia raid, in the space of under 15 minutes between each goal, and we never recovered from that setback.
As a team the Warriors did not get into those dangerous areas quite well and enough where we could hurt the Carthage Eagles that in the end they flew over and past us into the quarter-finals at our own expense.
By Pasuwa’s own admission, some of our players, Khama Billiat in particular – from whom a lot was expected – shied away from receiving the ball. Thus we played too far apart each other; hence a lot of those inaccuracies in passes, most which went astray. And the opponents abruptly turned those into attacks, instantly putting us under pressure again.
Overall, our transition was also hugely problematic – that shift, after recovering the ball, from defensive mode into an attacking threat was glaringly lacking.
As we ponder on what could or might have been, one cannot help wondering if things would have panned out differently if we had not lost talismanic striker Knowledge Musona to injury, who limped off early in our opener against Algeria and subsequently missed the Senegal tie, bust scored a beauty and provided an assist for Tendai Ndoro on his return.
Feedback:
The game against Algeria was super, but I think the coach lost the plot against Senegal. Yes, Senegal are the number one-ranked country [in Africa], but I think we gave them too much respect. African soccer is man-marking and not space-marking. We were not marking. We kept playing high balls which cost us a lot because we did not win those balls. Our defence was also too slow. Why did the coach take Muroiwa to Afcon when he had had a 9-month layoff last season? [Teenage] Hadebe was there but was not given a chance. Ndoro is at his peak in South Africa, but was not given a run. [Cuthbert] Malajila is not playing regularly, but was given playing time. Our defenders exposed young Tatenda Mukuruva. The coach must tell his players not to rush things when they are down. In the second half, the whole team lost composure, making blind passes and our own star player Khama [Billiat] was just hitting the ball into the box. – Frank Mlambo, Marymount Teachers’ College.
It’s Game On, Play On!
For feedback, send your views, comments and contributions through WhatsApp or sms on 0733 576 259 or e-mail:fridayfootballechoes@gmail.com