Warriors should rise to the occasion

Editorial Comment
Zimbabwe’s senior national team take on Burkina Faso in the last game of the group stage of the African Nations Championships (Chan) finals today.

IT will be a familiar story again when Zimbabwe’s senior national team take on Burkina Faso in the last game of the group stage of the African Nations Championships (Chan) finals in Cape Town, South Africa, today.

The Warriors, who fired blanks in the first two matches of the tournament against Morroco and Uganda, will have to beat the West Africans convincingly to avoid an early exit.

Coach Ian Gorowa boasts a very good record so far at the helm of the under-performing national team, but it would not count for much if he does not beat Burkina Faso tonight for the Warriors to progress to the Chan quarter-finals. The shortcomings in the Warriors game plan so far are too glaring even to a layman. It is very clear that Gorowa, for whatever reason, did not take the best players to the tournament and some of the players that travelled and could make a difference in any game, such as Peter “Rio” Moyo, have not been given a chance to play.

The nation deserves to be told why Gorowa chose a striker such as FC Platinum’s Ali Sadiki instead of Stephen Sibanda who recently joined the Midlands team from Buffaloes.

Sibanda was among the top goalscorers last season with 12 goals. Sadiki does not feature among the list of leading strikers.

Nelson Maziwisa, Simba Sithole of Dynamos and another Simba Sithole of How Mine, who are with the Warriors in South Africa, did not reach double digits last season in the goal tallies.

Experienced former Highlanders striker Njabulo Ncube who performed so well last season was overlooked.

Highlanders defender Bruce Kangwa was also dropped for the tournament because he had a wedding in December.

He would without doubt have given the team a lot of attacking options. The Warriors also did not have the best of preparations and the coaches had their integrity brought into question following claims that some were using their positions to influence players to join certain teams in the off-season. This followed the controversial move by Masimba Mambare to join Dynamos from Highlanders.

There have been questions why the national team is dominated by Dynamos and FC Platinum players. In fact, narrating the questionable decisions being made by Zimbabwe at the Chan tournament now could be akin to trying to close the stable when all the horses have bolted out.

Gorowa has the opportunity to let the team’s performance on the field speak for itself tonight against Burkina Faso. It’s time the Warriors shed their perennial underachievers tag.