Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Collin Matiza And Tabaka Ramotsokoane
21 April 2008
Harare — Lesotho Under-20...(0) 1 Zimbabwe Under-20.....0 A NINE-MAN Zimbabwe Under-20 soccer team left Setsoto Stadium in Maseru yesterday with their heads high after restricting the home side to this narrow victory in the first leg of the African Youth Championships qualifier.
Coach Methembe Ndlovu's charges, who were forced to play the better part of the match with two men down following the expulsion of Martin Mutanda and Archieford Gutu, went down to a second-half penalty converted by Peter Tale.
Lesotho were awarded the penalty after Namibian referee Matthew Katjimuine adjudged Mutanda to have fouled Tale inside the box on the stroke of the hour. Mutanda was also sent off for a second bookable offence following that incident after having been booked earlier in the first half. The no-nonsense Namibian referee had earlier shown Lesotho's Ngoako Ngoako a red card for coming into the pitch without his consent after being treated on the sidelines. As if this was not enough, the Young Warriors were dealt another body blow when CAPS FC's promising midfielder Gutu received his marching orders for rough tackling Tale who seemed to be a menace whenever in possession of the ball.
However, the Zimbabweans never sat back and kept on pushing forward for the much-needed equaliser but to no avail as the likes of Tafadzwa Rusike and Knowledge Musona missed several scoring opportunities that came their way.
On the other hand, Lesotho also had their share of the possession with good build-ups and exchanges, much to the delight of the cheering handful of spectators that watched the match that was played under chilly conditions. After the match, Zimbabwe Under-20 coach Ndlovu congratulated their opponents for the win but believed that they needed to go back to the drawing board to rectify some mistakes in order to progress to the next stage of the competition. He did not want to comment on the two red cards his team got, saying it was the referee's decision and was beyond his control.
The Highlanders head coach also did not want to be drawn into speaking about the weak or strong points of Lesotho, saying he was focusing on his side more than their opponents. His Lesotho counterpart Let'sola-kobo Lephoto was happy with the victory, saying it was special to him since it was his debut game as head coach of a national side. "This win is very special to me as it is the first I am in charge as head coach of a national side as I was always serving as assistant coach and will cherish it for a long time," he said. However, the Lesotho coach believed that there was still a lot to do in the return match, adding that he needed to play at least two international friendly matches to rectify mistakes which he had noted in yesterday's match.
He said his charges got tired as the game wore on and they seemed to crack under pressure as they failed to keep their opponents at bay. The two teams will meet for the second leg in Harare in two weeks' time to decide who proceeds to the next round for a date with Egypt. These two Southern African nations are trying to qualify for the continental youth championships whose finals will be staged in Rwanda next year.
Yesterday's match was watched by newly-appointed Lesotho senior national side coach Zavisa Milosavljevic who landed in the tiny mountain kingdom on Wednesday from Serbia. Milosavljevic said the match was good and believed that some of the players could be roped into the senior team soon.
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