Warriors charm hearts

The Herald

By Robson Sharuko

28 March 2013

AMID the ruins of a World Cup campaign that lies in tatters, a rainbow of hope created by an incredible outpouring of goodwill towards the Warriors, even in their hour of failure, has emerged on the horizon.

For once, the majority of their fans appear to have chosen to embrace the team and look beyond the short-term goal of qualifying for Brazil and the painful reality that this campaign has turned into the worst World Cup adventure in the Warriors’ history.

The Warriors find themselves bottom of their group, with just a point to show for their troubles at the halfway mark of their quest to qualify for Brazil, the worst position they have ever been at this stage of the World Cup qualifiers in the past 33 years.

Only Cape Verde, who are bottom of Group B of the African Zone qualifiers without a point in their three matches, are in a worse position than the Warriors, among the 40 nations from the continent, who are battling it out for the five tickets to Brazil.
Five other nations — Botswana, Gambia, Sudan, Rwanda and Togo — are in the same position as Zimbabwe with just a point after three matches and, in terms of overall classification, the Warriors are currently in 34th place, out of the 40 teams, who are in the trenches fighting for a dance in the Land of Samba.

Zimbabwe’s painful 1-2 defeat, at the hands of group leaders Egypt in Alexandria on Tuesday night, all but ended the Warriors’ quest for a place in Brazil given that it left them trailing the Pharaohs by eight points with just nine points still left to be played for in the battles.
But rather than abandon their team, the fans appear to have been charmed by the solid performance of a youthful brigade of Warriors in Alexandria, who battled long and hard and came within four minutes of regulation time of snatching a draw that would have tasted like a landmark victory.

German coach, Klaus-Dieter Pagels, in his first competitive assignment of the Warriors, won the hearts and minds of the fans back home, and the respect of commentators who had questioned his decision to invest his trust in a number of rookies, after a gusty display by his players.
It wasn’t a spectacular performance but it was solid and Pagels’ lads fused confidence, into their fans watching the drama back home, that this young team could be nurtured into something really special, to compete for honours on the continent, if given the support it richly deserves.

That Pagels went into battle with a weakened team, after a number of his first-choice regulars pulled out for one reason or another, the main one being injury, had deflated optimism among that fans that the Warriors could stand the test of the Pharaohs, in their backyard, on Tuesday.

But Pagels’ boys, who have the potential of turning themselves into men who can be a fierce force to reckon with, charmed their fans with their committed display, refusing to be swallowed by the occasion and standing, toe-to-toe with the Pharaohs, in an intriguing battle royale.

That they would not perform as an oiled machine was largely expected but very few expected them to play with hearts of lions and it soon became clear, in the first 20 minutes of that showdown, that we were watching a proper national football team, playing to a certain structure, and competing with pride and courage.
In the week that Zambia’s Sports Minister, Chishimba Kwambili, branded Chipolopolo’s 1-1 draw in Lesotho as a “rubbish” result and threatened to disband the team and also withdraw government funding, there was a warm reception to the Warriors when they returned home yesterday even though they were coming from a failed mission.

In sharp contrast, there was a warmth extended to the Warriors, even though they crashed to their second defeat in three World Cup qualifying matches, and most of the fans and commentators appeared confident that the future looks rosy and Pagels could be the man to unlock value in the team.

Questions will be asked about some of his choices and decisions, like the late introduction of a forward Tafadzwa Rusike at a time when the Warriors should have looked for defensive reinforcement and stability to preserve the point they had worked hard to get.
Or the value that any of his substitutes added to the game or who should be the leader between Denver Mukamba or Washington Arubi and, if it was the latter who was calling the shots on the field on Tuesday, wasn’t it possible that things could have turned out differently?

But what will be remembered is how Pagels made this team attractive once again, at the same time playing with an efficiency that had lacked in their recent matches, and the German coach and his players emerged as heroes, on the night, for doing more right things than the wrong ones.
For a refreshing change, you could feel a fresh breeze blowing across our football landscape, as the boys battled in Alexandria and matters of the field took centre stage from matters of the boardroom, and the more they battled, they more they drew fans into their corner.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, David Coltart, said it was painful to swallow the reality that the Warriors were now out of the World Cup but it was impossible to ignore the promise of the good work done by Pagels in Egypt.
“Warriors have gone down to Egypt and so are out of World Cup,” said Coltart. “Much work still to be done to restore excellence to Zimbabwe football.

“Although we lost today I am encouraged by what Klaus Dieter Pagels is doing for the Warriors. We need to give new Zim football a chance.”
Former Zimbabwe international forward, Alois Bunjira, who is now a sports analyst on radio, said defender Augustine Mbara, who committed the foul that led to the late Egyptian winner, could have done better but, overally, there were more positives than negatives.

“The worst reckless tackle I have ever seen. He was late into that tackle and nowhere near the ball. All he could have done was delay the guy and force him to an angle or otherwise trust his keeper and force the striker to take a shot at goal,” Bunjira wrote on his Facebook wall.
“The striker was not in an obvious scoring position. That’s why he even got a yellow card instead of red. But we have all made mistakes but we cannot keep quiet when they are made. He will learn from his mistakes and know better next time.

“If we don’t tell him now about the mistake he won’t learn. He will think he did well and the ref was unfair, which is not true. When we analyse, we don’t have to be biased. That was a clear penalty from a mistimed tackle.”

Bunjira said his fears were that this team, which showed a lot of promise, would be disbanded, if things don’t go according to plan, and the exposure that players like Mbara received in Egypt would go to waste.
“My concern is that Mbara has gained experience. By the time he is a seasoned defender, with all the experience, we will start hearing people calling for new blood saying Mbara is old,” said Bunjira.

“We will bring in another youngster who will start by making similar mistakes and the cycle continues. My call is to keep this team intact until they decide to retire on their own instead of having every new coach coming in to rebuild. We will never have a stable experienced team that way.
“No more rebuilding please, Zifa please, let’s stick with this team all the way to Afcon 2019 when all these boys will be seasoned, experienced and armed with footballing maturity.”

Clemence Marijeni, Zimbabwean journalist based in England, said the qualifying formula used by Fifa for the World Cup was very unfair.
“It’s so sad. To qualify for World Cup, England play the likes of San Marino while Zimbabwe play Egypt. The World Cup qualifying process is stupid to say the least,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“This is a World Cup, for God’s sake, and not a continental tournament so why should qualification be on a regional basis? Why won’t Zimbabwe, for once, play against San Marino, Belarus, Kazakhstan?
“I’m so saddened when England go to the World Cup and the likes of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador are not there. Their crime — their continent is too good.”