By Sports Reporter
A 76th-minute header by Benin captain Steve Mounie at Alassane Ouattara Stadium all but ended the faint hopes Zimbabwe had of qualifying for the world’s biggest soccer showpiece next year.
The Warriors, our own boys in green last week, lacked the fighting spirit expected of real warriors and, befittingly, fell to a team nicknamed the Squirrels.
With German coach Michael Nees, the Warriors are indeed on their k(nees) as they anchor their group with just four points out of a possible 21.
Despite qualifying the nation for AFCON 2025, Nees has won only two matches, both against Namibia, from his 12 games in charge.
The former SADC chairmen have been good neighbors indeed, donating points to lowly ranked neighbors Lesotho and, of course, South Africa, who lead the group with 16 points.
Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), also being ‘patriotic,’ has been copying everything ZANU PF does, as far as mismanagement and confusion are concerned.
This World Cup campaign started with a not-normal ZIFA Normalization Committee, which failed to continue with Brito Baltemar, despite the former Highlanders coach managing draws against Rwanda and Nigeria.
Allergic to progress, as the nation is now accustomed to under ZANU PF, the not-normal Normalization Committee somehow went for Jairos Tapera, who was tactically exposed in losses to Lesotho and South Africa.
Names don’t lie, and indeed it was at that point that the country’s World Cup dream was all but ended by Tapera!
But then there is the story of Nqobile Magwizi, the protégé of Kudakwashe Tagwirei, who was installed as ZIFA President.
The story is told that Magwizi forged his way into office riding on the back of his dead-as-dodo Banket FC.
Just as his mentor Tagwirei is trying to buy his way into ZANU PF Central Committee, Magwizi also finds himself at the apex of Zimbabwean football after buying the votes of ZIFA councillors via Wicknell Chivhayo’s US$10 million promise to the football body in the event they vote for his presidency.
With the Warriors now preparing to take on Rwanda at ‘home’ in South Africa on Tuesday, the reality is that there won’t be a possibility of an Emmanuel Jalai versus Lionel Messi contest in next year’s World Cup.
