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Zimbabwe/Kenya: Warriors in Trouble
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
23 June 2008
Posted to the web 23 June 2008
Petros Kausiyo
Harare
PATHETIC Zimbabwe were left needing to move mountains to keep alive their fading 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualification hopes after putting on a sterile show in a Group 2 preliminary round qualifier against Kenya at Rufaro yesterday.
Zimbabwe -- second on the Group 2 standings before yesterday's match -- slumped into third place and will now face an uphill task when the next round of qualifiers resumes in September.
The Warriors now have five points, while Kenya have seven.
But it is Guinea who have awoken from their slow start who took over pole position after hammering hapless Namibia 4-0 in Conakry last night.
Guinea have the same number of points with Kenya, but the Syli Nationale have a superior goal difference courtesy of their ruthless win over Namibia.
In fact, Brazilian coach Valinhos and his men virtually surrendered the destiny of their campaign to other teams in Group 2 as they lost further ground in the race and were left mourning the two points lost than drawing satisfaction from a point gained.
In these qualifiers, no team can afford to drop points at home and with Fifa using a complex qualifying criteria, the Warriors qualification hopes are fading with each outing as the Harambee Stars have now taken crucial four points from their back-to-back meetings with Zimbabwe.
The Harambee Stars -- led by their star player Denis Oliech -- had won the reverse fixture 2-0 in Nairobi last weekend and were clearly comfortable to play for a draw in yesterday's game in which they defended in numbers and relied on sporadic counter raids.
That they celebrated as if they had won and broke into song and dance in their dressing room showed how significantly they valued the point gained on the road, which could turn out to be decisive in the final Group 2 standings.
In stark contrast, the Warriors' dressing room resembled a funeral as it dawned on Valinhos and his men that they had let the nation down, they had let themselves down and more worryingly they had lost full control of their qualification campaign.
Yet the Warriors had seemed on course to avenge their loss in Nairobi when they got off to a strong start in a first half that promised so much, but sadly did not deliver anything as captain Benjani Mwaruwari and his troops created a number of good scoring opportunities, which they, however, took turns to spurn.
The Warriors were already probing as early as the second minute when Gilbert Mushangazhike charged down the left flank and was brought down on the edge of the box.
Esrom Nyandoro took the responsibility to fire the free kick but his effort just flew wide off the post with Kenyan goalkeeper Noah Ayuko a beaten man.
Four minutes later, the Warriors were back searching for an early breakthrough but the raid, initiated by Clemence Matawu could only yield a corner.
Motor Action kingpin Matawu was the only change to the 11 players that had previously started all the Warriors games.
Matawu -- who in the previous three games had been coming off the bench -- was thrust in the starting line up in place of the injured Harlington Shereni.
In the ninth minute, Manchester City forward Mwaruwari, who like the majority of his troops had a poor game, ran into space on the right, shook off the challenge of his marker before sending in a low cross into the box.
The ball deceived Harambee Stars' keeper Ayuko, but there was no gold jersey to punish the Kenyans with Mushangazhike arriving too late to make a connection and the estimated 30 000 crowd were left ruing a golden chance that had been lost.
That tale of missed opportunities was to continue again in the 21st minute when Cephas Chimedza who had done well to ghost in from the blind side to meet a David Kutyauripo centre, skied his effort.
A minute later, Valinhos was forced to make an injury-inspired substitution after Austrian-based midfielder Joseph Ngwenya who had been combining well with Matawu and Chimedza in midfield broke down with an ankle problem and was replaced by Honour Gombami.
The Harambee Stars' first real opportunity came in the 27th minute when the dangerous Oliech broke loose on the right in a swift counter attack and with five Warriors hot in his pursuit, the AJ Auxerre man's effort did little to trouble Energy Murambadoro.
Gombami, just like Mushangazhike and Chimedza before him also failed to connect a long cross from Bhasera with the Harambee Stars defenders at sea in the 38th minute.
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Murambadoro was then called into real action when Oliech struck a fierce shot on the turn from about 20 metres in the 44th minute that forced the Warriors goalkeeper to dive to his left and punch the ball out for a corner.
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