Harare — THIS weekend all ears and possibly eyes will be in Algeria where the Warriors will be hoping to avoid defeat and move to within three points of a second successive Nations Cup finals appearance.

The match is a late kick-off on Sunday but it will definitely be on television.

I am not sure whether national broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings has made plans to beam the game live but those fortunate to be on full bouquet on DSTV will watch the game on Supersport 8 from 9.15pm.

Those not fortunate to be either on ZTV or Supersport 8 will not miss out entirely as we have our man there in chief football writer Petros Kausiyo and even those on television will need him for post-match quotes and also in case of a blackout.

Our chances of getting something out of Algeria are there but the players must realise that this is a do-or-die match for the hosts and they will do everything within their means to get a win.

Algeria must beat Zimbabwe if they are to stand a chance of finishing third and make it to the Nations Cup finals in Egypt next year - we must expect all forms of dirty tricks before and during the game.

Back home action continues in the Buddie Premiership and there will be seven matches tomorrow and on Sunday with the Chapungu-CAPS United clash being postponed as the champions have three players on national duty.

It will be a strange weekend in the capital as giants Dynamos and CAPS United will not be either at the National Sports Stadium or Rufaro but there will still be two matches in Harare.

But strangely, both matches will be at Gwanzura and tomorrow in-form Buymore will host Railstars in a tricky assignment as a win will take Max "Malume" Moyo's charges into third place.

It will be an historic achievement for Buymore who are currently collecting points to avoid relegation at the end of the season and have become giant-killers in their own right.

Buymore became the first team to beat former champions Highlanders in the Buddie Premiership this season and they have made life very difficult for both Dynamos and CAPS United although Malume's charges did not win.

Now Buymore, relegation candidates to some at the start of the season, have two players in the Warriors squad that is in Algeria for Sunday's crucial 2006 World Cup/Nations Cup Group Four qualifier together with champions CAPS.

They might be former Dynamos players but defender James Matola and goalkeeper Gift Muzadzi are with the Warriors as Buymore players while CAPS have wingback Cephas Chimedza and striker Brian Badza in the same squad.

Amazulu and Highlanders are the only other teams to have supplied players to the Warriors with the former providing midfield genius Ronald Sibanda while Bosso have goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini.

Otherwise the rest of the squad is made up of foreign-based professionals and Buymore should be proud of their achievements so far in the season and a win over Railstars should not be a shock result.

It appears Buymore's youthful chairman Wavell Gunda is on the right track.

On Sunday, Gwanzura will stage the basement battle between Black Rhinos and Eiffel Wildcats, a match that will not have many football lovers worried especially with the Warriors match following later in the day.

Black Rhinos have never really commanded a large following in the capital and attempts to take their games to Chinhoyi and Marondera but they were met with relatively the same fate.

Even if people turn up in their thousands, all they do is support the opposition and this has been the case even when they were playing their best football although there has been marginal support in matches involving Highlanders in Harare.

This is mainly because CAPS and Dynamos fans would rather have anyone but Highlanders win matches and they would rather rally behind Black Rhinos.

But Black Rhinos should be among the country's best-supported clubs as they are giants in terms of achievements since Independence.

Only Dynamos and Highlanders have achieved more than Black Rhinos since 1980 and the army side has represented Zimbabwe on continental club matches on numerous occasions.

Rhinos' most notable success might have come in the 1980s -winning the then Super League in their maiden season in 1984 and then in 1987- but they remain important statistics just like Liverpool remain a giant in the English Premiership.

Liverpool last won the league championship in the 1989/90 season and have been unsuccessful since the formation of the Premiership in 1992 but you cannot talk about English football without mentioning the Reds.

After all they have now won the European Champions League five times, a record, and only the likes of Manchester United, Nottingham Forest (both two-time winners) and Aston Villa will be interested parties.

Black Rhinos have won the league title twice since Independence and that puts them joint-third with CAPS United (1996 and 2004) with Dynamos well clear on 11 and Highlanders second on six.

Only two seasons ago Black Rhinos finished second in the Premiership and although they finished a massive 20 points behind champions Highlanders, they had done a lot to give the city of Harare something to smile about as Dynamos and CAPS were in hiding.

Former coach Nesbert Saruchera was in charge of the first five games, the fifth being a 0-4 defeat to champions CAPS in a match the sides were goalless at halftime.

Saruchera had managed just a single point from a 1-1 draw with Lancashire Steel and there was something interesting from these matches as Rhinos scored six goals in four matches.

At the same stage of the campaign, Highlanders were unbeaten in five matches but they had scored just two goals and I could understand why Saruchera threw in the towel.

Something is wrong at Black Rhinos and it is beyond the players and coaches' control.

There have been improvements to the squad that finished second in the 2002 Premiership race but instead of finding them in the top half of the league table, Black Rhinos are at the bottom of the league.

Rhinos have just five points from 11 games and their only points came from an away win over Sundowns and two home draws against Railstars and Lancashire Steel while the other eight matches have ended in defeat.

As it is, Black Rhinos will be relegated at the end of the season and Eiffel Wildcats are certain to join them and thus Sunday's game at Gwanzura will not really change much in terms of both sides' fortunes.

If Rhinos win they will only swap places with Eiffel Wildcats and if the visitors win then they will stay second from bottom although they will be now enjoying a five-point cushion.

History has it that teams occupying the bottom place at the end of May get relegated at the end of the season.

Only Sporting Lions defied this in their 2002 campaign but still they needed play-offs, staged that season only to make way for the reduction of the Premiership from 16 teams to 14, to be safe.

This time there won't be any play-offs and Black Rhinos are in real danger.

They are in real danger because they will try and play the game clean while civilian clubs tend to use their fat pockets to bribe match officials and opposition players to win matches and you will not expect this from Rhinos.

That is why they failed to make a quick return to the Premiership after being relegated in 1995 as they had to compete with Air Zimbabwe in the Northern Region Division One league.

I remember in 1996 Black Rhinos needed a penalty to salvage a 1-1 draw with Trojan Mine but a week later the same team suffered a 10-1 defeat to Air Zimbabwe who went on to win promotion ahead of Black Rhinos.

Now Black Rhinos face a similar fate as they fight relegation and they are competing against teams with enough resources to play dirty games.

The only way out for Black Rhinos is for the executive to seriously look at the current problems and address them without egos because the team is facing Premiership extinction.

They might look at the gap with teams like Sundowns, Railstars and Chapungu as small but they must ask Alois Bunjira and Wits University.

Wits University needed just a win in their last five matches to survive both automatic relegation and play-offs but they lost all of them despite having quality players and they were relegated.

For the first time in 30 years Wits University won't be playing league matches against the likes of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates because they left it until too late to try and rectify their problems.

Black Rhinos look like the Zimbabwean equivalent of Wits University - they have good players and seem to have enough time to fight relegation but something is wrong somewhere.