Zimbabwean soccer needs cleansing

The soccer crazy nation was left dumbfounded with no answers, a few days ago when both the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors were dumped out of African safari by Tanzania and Zambia respectively. The nation was patiently and eagerly waiting for both teams to raise the nation's flag by qualifying for the Morocco 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals and the 2014 African Women Championship (AWC) to be hosted by Namibia.

Zimbabwe being a soccer crazy nation has failed to get anything in return from both national teams although their supporters spent time and money going to the stadia to watch them play. Both the warriors and the Mighty Warriors have been finding it difficult to qualify for major tournaments leaving the soccer crazy supporters choosing to support other countries whenever major tournaments are staged. The stories of the "near misses" have been taking place since time immemorial but Zimbabweans have not given up their support to their national teams hoping that one day they would qualify for one of the major tournaments either the world Cup or the Continental Cup.

Soccer fans have been denied chances to watch their teams competing with other nations raising a lot of questions on whether is it necessary to support our national teams. Most Zimbabweans have been disgruntled by the latest failure by both our teams to proceed to next rounds, blaming ZIFA as the main culprit which has failed to organize its house to be in order. Of course some may blame the Cuthbert Dube-led ZIFA as the culprit but Dube`s influence cannot be the same with the ZIFA Women`s Football Council, chaired by Miriam Sibanda who took over from Marvis Gumbo in March 2014.

The people`s blame put on ZIFA leadership having failed the nation cannot be ruled out but before doing that many factors must be put forward so that people venture their blame on ZIFA leadership with clear and touchable evidence on Cuthbert Dube and company. While this article is not in defense of Dube as the main failure in all this dramatic end to our Africa AFCON campaign, but people should read more on the history of our Warriors and see whether there is any need to blame the current ZIFA leadership.

Zimbabweans are now used to seeing such near misses taking place even at the time when the team was supposed to win and proceed to the next round. This article may not dwell more on the Mighty Warriors although they have of late joined the Warriors on this near misses endeavor, more will be said on the Warriors, with the Mighty Warriors coming in to fulfill raised points and issues.

For those who are quick  to forget be reminded that the Warriors have been failing to qualify for major tournaments even at the time when supporters were thinking that the team was poised to win. The entrance of Zimbabwe into the international competitions just after independence did not even bring any joy to the nation. With good players like the two brothers Sunday Marimo and Misheck Marimo, Charles Jones, Stanley Ndunduma, Oliver Kateya, Shackman Tauro, Joel Shambo, Moses Razorman Bambo Chunga and a host of other good and talented players but the Warriors failed to take this nation to any major tournament with the exception of the Peter Ndlovu-led Warriors who made us proud in the 2004 and 2006 finals in Tunisia and Egypt respectively, although in both instances, they failed to get out of the first round hurdle. Since that time, the nation has reverted back to seeing the Warriors failing at the last hurdle.

 I hear someone reminding me of the CECAFA which Zimbabwe won during the Marimos`time and the COSAFA which the Warriors on more than three times tested victory but are those two regional Cups be compared to either the Africa Cup of Nations or the World cup which the nations want the Warriors to be involved  in them? Winning regional tournaments without competing in major ones that bring with them rankings in the football fraternity either in Africa or the world over is similar to playing local leagues which cannot contribute in the rankings of a country.  

Changing national coaches and even players since then, has not even done any good to the nation. For quite some time now we have witnessed our Warriors failing either to win or to have a draw, just for them to qualify. This has been going on for some time and for someone to blame the current ZIFA leadership and the coach for the Warriors` failure, stems from him/her forgetting history.

 In the 1992 AFCON qualifying rounds in which Senegal was the host, the Warriors failed to hold on to their 2-1 lead over Congo when the win was going to take them to Senegal. The match had all the ingredients of a good and entertaining match as it was the only one which witnessed the combination of Peter the Flying Elephant Ndlovu and the Razorman Moses Chunga. With everyone happy and hoping for a next flight to Dakar, unexpectedly for John Sibanda in goals for the Warriors, with just a minute to go, scooped the ball into his own net and eventually destroyed the spirit of the soccer loving nation. What an unfortunate ending. That caused the dismissal by ZIFA of the Ghanaian coach Ben Koufie and his assistant Amanda Ferreira resulting in Ben Koufie cursing the Warriors that even if a coach hired from Mars the team will never qualify to any major tournament although he was proved wrong later in 2004 and 2006.

In the 1994 AFCON qualifying matches, which was to be hosted by Tunisia, Zimbabwe failed to hold on to its 1-0 lead over Zambia until Kalusha Bwala headed an equalizer which led Zambia to qualify, leaving the Warriors to rue their missed chances. Zimbabwe again failed to hold on to its 3-1 lead over Angola in the 2012 qualifying rounds when they were hosted by Angola for the second leg in Luanda. The Warriors who had beaten Angola in Rufaro stadium needed just a draw in Luanda but the first fifteen minutes saw Manucho Goncalves heading two goals that nailed our Warriors and shattered our dreams of going to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea who were the co-host of that tournament.  

 Some simple remedies for our country to rid itself of all such misfortunes have nothing to do with change of coaches or ZIFA leadership. Our teams (both the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors) need national cleansing for them to take us to the Promised Land. Zimbabweans have been heartbroken for long time by the Warriors, now the Mighty Warriors as they both failed to qualify for major tournaments for quite some time now. Finger pointing to each other, at this juncture would not help our country go anywhere in sport.

It is now high time for all stakeholders in the football fraternity to join hands and make sure that our stadia are cleansed so that our national teams are not beaten at home or they do not play for a draw here.

History has shown that Zimbabwean teams are not good at defending their home grounds and some foreign teams come here and go back to their bases with maximum points which they would collected by beating our teams. It is unheard of in other countries that a home team is beaten at home and this is why both the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors fell by the wayside in Tanzania and Zambia respectively. Tanzania made sure that she is not beaten at home by the Warriors and Zambia did the same to the Mighty Warriors and now results are there for everyone to see.

Instead of blaming one another for the failure of our national teams to qualify for major tournaments, stakeholders in the football fraternity including you, should come together in the National Sports Stadium or Rufaro and have either prayers or traditional cleansing ceremonies for all our national teams so that such near misses are thrown out of oblivision.