The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Reporter
FORMER Tanganda defence lynchpin and Warriors’ legend Ephraim “The Rock of Gibraltar” Chawanda believes coach Joey Antipas and his Warriors Class of 2019 will do little to guarantee the country a place at the 2022 Qatar World Cup finals as long as the country’s football mother body – Zifa – does not prioritise proper welfare of the team.
Zimbabwean football history would be incomplete without the mention of Chawanda.
He was a dependable defender, a star defender who could thwart opposition with ease.
As a result he commanded first team jersey for both his club team Zimbabwe Saints and the national team.
To date, Chawanda, who partnered player-turned-legal expert Arnold Tsunga in the heart of the now defunct Tanganda FC here in Mutare, is part of a group of former national team players who are watching as the brand they helped build over years nosedive to new depths.
The Warriors were facing an embarrassing exit in the 2022 FIFA World Cup preliminary round qualifiers at the hands of the global lightweights Somalia as time ticked away.
After one of the team’s poorest performances, on home soil, the Warriors never looked like finding the Midas Touch they needed to book their place in the group stages of the tournament.
Now, and again, they ran into the Somali defensive wall, with their preference to send in aerial balls into the box, easily being dealt with by the tall defenders.
And, even more baffling, was the decision by the coaches to keep five men in defence, for the entire first half, where they were all marking one striker as the visitors chose to sit back and hit on the counter.
One would have expected a tweek of the formation very early but it didn’t come.
With the score line tied at 1-1, and Somalia having the advantage after having beaten the Warriors in the reverse tie 1-0, it all looked gloomy for Zimbabwe.
But it then took Knox Mtizwa’s strike as well as a third Zimbabwe goal in the 93rd minute, scored by Khama Billiat, to break the Somali hearts and sent the Warriors through on aggregate, 3-2.
But Chawanda is not convinced.
“I do not see what the coach could have done better in the prevailing conditions of national teams. You can bring the best coach in the world, nothing will change unless Zifa focuses on the proper welfare of the teams,” he said.
Chawanda, who was born at Njube Clinic in 1964 in a family of six children where Ephraim’s brother Josphat and him were the only Chawanda siblings who played soccer, said he does not envisage national team attracting meaningful sponsorship if Zifa continues with its management approach.
“There is no self respecting corporate that will want to associate or donate its resources to chaos,” he said.
