Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Petros Kausiyo
24 June 2008
Harare — Zimbabwe's 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations campaign lies in tatters after the Warriors connived to put on an unimaginative display in their Group 2 preliminary round clash against Kenya at Rufaro Stadium on Sunday.
The Warriors who were so disappointing, especially in attack, have now gone back to the dark era when they had to bank on other teams' results to keep alive their qualification hopes.
Coach Valinhos and his men failed to find the Samba magic to unlock the Harambee Stars defence on a day when they badly needed a win to breathe life into their faltering campaign. The Warriors went into battle on Sunday, smarting from a 0-2 defeat by Kenya in Nairobi but by the stroke of the hour at Rufaro, it was becoming painfully obvious that Valinhos' men would not turn the tables on the East Africans. Yet they had got off to a promising start, raiding the Harambee Stars goal area in the first 20 minutes and keeping their goalkeeper Noah Ayuko busy. In that brief spell, wingbacks Onismor Bhasera and David Kutyauripo featured prominently as did midfielder Clemence Matawu.
As chances came along, it seemed a matter of time before the Warriors could get the early breakthrough that would have unsettled the Harambee Stars who were clearly looking to their star forward Denis Oliech for inspiration. But for much of the game, Zvenyika Makonese and James Matola did well to keep him in check and did not allow the 23-year-old AJ Auxerre man the kind of space they had given him in Nairobi. Valinhos, however, acknowledged that his charges - already short on creativity in midfield and the cutting edge upfront -- had made life very difficult for themselves when they panicked and began pumping long balls forward much to the comfort of the Harambee Stars.
After four weeks of intense qualifiers, all the African teams involved in the qualifiers will take a break and resume in September. But for Valinhos, that break looks set to be a long period of soul-searching as the Brazilian coach reflects on a team that flattered only to deceive. The Warriors had shown a lot of character and promise when they battled to an important 0-0 draw against Guinea in Conakry and even shot to the top of the Group 2 standings after their 2-0 win over Namibia at Rufaro. They, however, failed to exorcise the Harambee Stars jinx, losing 2-0 in Nairobi. When the grand stage presented itself for the Warriors to finally get the monkey off their back and end 23 years of waiting to beat Kenya, Valinhos' men were found wanting in a game that exposed some shortcomings about their system.
The Warriors, who do not have talented ball players, should simply learn to play to their strengths and although Valinhos has been trying to build them into a formidable outfit, the process could take longer and outlive the current campaign. Valinhos, clearly disappointed by the manner in which his charges had applied themselves, also admitted that the two-point gap between the Warriors and the top two teams in the group - Guinea and Kenya - could be difficult to close in a Group 2 that has always been open from day one of the qualifying marathon.
But he remained confident that with hard work and a correction of their mistakes, the Warriors could keep the pressure on the leading pair of Guinea and Kenya. "We are now two points behind the team at the top and it will be very difficult now because we have to rely on the other teams' results, but we have to start winning again," Valinhos said. With Guinea having shot to the top of the table following their 4-0 rout of Namibia and Kenya taking four points from them, the Warriors are back to the era of permutations in which they would be praying that certain results go their way. In this case, the Warriors are now under immense pressure to win their remaining two games - at home against Guinea and away against Namibia in Windhoek. Such a scenario would give the Warriors 11 points, but in order for them to claim pole position in Group 2, Guinea must win against Kenya which would mean that both sides would have cancelled each other out.
But should they fail to secure maximum points and top their group, the Warriors would now have to wait for a confirmation of the results from the other 11 groups to find out whether they qualify as one of the best eight runners-up.
That is if they ease back into second place. The 12 group winners from this round of qualifiers will be joined by eight best runners-up chosen through a complex criteria being used by Fifa. Those 20 would then battle in the final qualifying round for places at the World Cup in South Africa and the Nations Cup in Angola. But it is the back-to-back encounters against Kenya, which the Warriors will always point to, should they fail to cross the first qualifying hurdle. They lacked the character to withstand the heat at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi and they failed to find the determination and the zeal to turn on the power on a Harambee Stars outfit that was clearly content with just securing a draw and barely kept Energy Murambadoro and his replacement Washington Arubi busy in the 90 minutes.
Questions will inevitably be asked whether it was right for Valinhos to place his trust in the same team over four games and keep hoping that they would improve with each outing.
There will be questions too whether the Brazilian should have followed his principle in which he has opted to use players whom he has had more time to work with and if that was the case, he should have blended more locals with the foreign contingent.
There had been calls throughout this campaign that the coach should change his team at any instance of the results not coming, but Valinhos has in the last weeks believed in skipper Benjani Mwaruwari and his troops and whether he will finally make major changes for the last two games, only time will tell.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
