The ManicaPost
Moffat Mungazi’s Footy Footnotes
WITH the ongoing 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals already over halfway through with the semi-finals set for Sunday, football followers in Mutare and Manicaland appear to be still nursing Zimbabwe’s elimination almost two weeks after the senior men’s soccer team’s unceremonious exit from the tournament.
Coach Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa and his charges were humiliated at the first hurdle, failing to progress from the group phases and local soccer enthusiasts are still hurting over the debacle, which has been described as treasonous in some circles.
Some fans have since now been forced to adopt and root for teams, among those still in the running, other than their dear Warriors.
As the soul-searching in our national game continues, there was an unrestrained outpouring of emotion and disappointment among grief-stricken fans who spoke to Post Sport in the aftermath of the embarrassing knockout.
Popular Zimunya armchair critic Nesbert “Shava” Simbi had no kind words for the game’s administration.
“Zifa were always a big let down. Warriors should have been properly incentivised rather than sending them into battle ill-prepared.
The players were a disgruntlement lot and this must have put them off. Would the players have been promised residential stands, for example, when their appearance fees were still outstanding? With an association like this, who needs enemies for the Warriors and our national football?
“There is a bunch of clueless people in leadership of our national game and these are the chief culprits responsible for the shambolic state our football finds itself in. Some of them must just step down the same way the Warriors went out of Afcon and our game would be better off without them because they are running down football,” fumed Simbi.
Thomas Gwara of Nyanga opined that the Warriors were meek competitors.
“This is not what we were expecting. It is not that we were eliminated per se that is hurting the most because we were going to get knocked out anyway along the way, but the manner in which that happened.
Overall, the team was never up for it in virtually all the three games we played at the finals.
If we were not wasting precious goal-scoring chances, then we were making fatal mistakes which gave away goals cheaply,” said Gwara, a CAPS United fanatic and former player with Scissors FC in the lower leagues. A dived house at the team’s base, according to Tawanda Beni of Hobhouse, was always going to militate against them.
Reasoned Beni: “A lot was happening in the Warriors camp. We even suspect that there are things which occurred and went unreported that we will not be surprised if more skeletons come tumbling out of their closets later.
It would appear there was never unity of purpose among the whole squad and were never pulling in the same direction given reports of friction and fissures that rocked their base.
Or how can Kuda Mahachi’s diatribe questioning and challenging the coaches’ decision to overlook and leave him on the bench in the first two matches be explained? Or the altercation between Tafadzwa Kutinyu and Tino Kadewere?
Then that Jimmy Dzingai misdemeanor on WhatsApp! They must have wanted to only put up a united front as a smokescreen yet tension was simmering behind the scenes.
Were they pulling in the same direction? A lot was awfully amiss.” Some like Pardon Muyambo questioned the team selection.
“We do not get it how Nyasha Mushekwi got to be involved in the last game against Democratic Republic of Congo when he had been ruled out earlier after picking a knock that would sideline him for at least three weeks.
Yes, he might have recovered ahead of schedule, but then was he match fit to be thrown into the fray?
Not mentioning that he had promised to dole out some money to his teammates if they won that particular crucial match and given that he had announced that he would retire from international football at the end of this tournament, everything becomes fishy and we smell a rat.
To make matters worse, we were already trailing and seemingly going out, then why not give a run to the other players who had never tasted action? queried Muyambo of Chimanimani.
From Nyazura, Chicco Chimukoko pinned down the blame on gaffer Chidzambwa.
“I think Mhofu has given good service and best shots to the cause of the national squad for the time he has been with the team, but it is now time he passed the baton to other competent coaches; especially the younger ones.
He should simply quit coaching the Warriors to allow tacticians like Norman Mapeza, Lloyd Chitembwe, Joey Antipas and others to step in.
Quite frankly, he lost the plot in Egypt and new blood must be injected in that technical setup in order to guide our boys as they seek to take the next step in their progress.
“We were tactically and technically deficient because we did not have an alternative to turn to or another bankable and workable strategy once our initial game plan was frustrated and did not bear fruit.
Defence wins games and attack wins trophies, yet we lacked the cutting edge both at the back and in front of goal,” quipped Chimukoko.
If it is about football that you care, let’s share the cheer because we are made for the game, mad about the game!
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