Inside Sport: Warriors coach Pasuwa needs help

Sport
Zimbabwe Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa is one of the happiest men on earth at the moment. The mentor is now driving around in a top-of-the-range 2016 Toyota D4D vehicle and is one of the highest paid people in this country — if the figures being thrown around are true.

Zimbabwe Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa is one of the happiest men on earth at the moment. The mentor is now driving around in a top-of-the-range 2016 Toyota D4D vehicle and is one of the highest paid people in this country — if the figures being thrown around are true.

MICHAEL KARIATI

Word doing rounds is that the Phillip Chiyangwa-led Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) has given Pasuwa a contract that entitles him to around $7 000 a month, in addition to other perks which include winning bonuses.

Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa
Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa

Surely, Pasuwa deserves such treatment as statistics show that he is one of the most successful — if not the most successful — coaches in Zimbabwean domestic football after guiding Dynamos to four consecutive league titles between 2011 and 2014.

However, Pasuwa still has to prove himself at an international level as the number of doubting Thomases has grown following the Africa Nations Championships debacle and the Young Warriors’ elimination by South Africa from the 2016 Africa Youth Championships.

The doubters are of the opinion that Pasuwa’s international record is threadbare, also pointing to his CAF Champions League results.

They are referring to the year 2012 when Pasuwa’s side was humiliated 7-1 on aggregate by Esperance of Tunisia after having been massacred 6-0 away from home, to crash out in the second round of the CAF Champions League.

As if this was not enough, they point to a year later when Pasuwa and his troops did even worse, losing out in the first round of the CAF Champions League to Club Athletic Bizertin, also of Tunisia, 3-1 on aggregate.

Fine, he qualified the national team for the Chan finals, but the doubters argue that this is nothing to gloat about as every coach who has handled the national team in that competition has managed to qualify his team for the Chan finals.

Sunday Chidzambwa did it in 2009 and Norman Mapeza followed this up in 2011, while Ian Gorowa was the last to take the Warriors to the Chan finals in 2014.

So in regards to Chan, there is nothing exceptional that Pasuwa did, except his poor results from the 2016 finals where his team managed only a single point in three matches, compared to the 2009 and 2011 teams which brought home three points, while the 2014 team went as far as the semi-finals.

Those who watched Pasuwa’s Under-23 team play against South Africa’s Amaglug at Rufaro, and the team’s subsequent elimination from the Africa Youth Championships, will no doubt agree that something technical and tactical was lacking in the Zimbabwean side.

Even the one-all draw against the Syli Nationale of Guinea — also at Rufaro — exposed Pasuwa’s shortcomings as Guinea could have easily won that game, had they utilised the opportunities that came their way in the dying stages of the game.

His preferred goalkeeper was Washington Arubi — who gifted the West Africans with their only goal. This is despite the fact that he had at his disposal an exciting new crop of goalkeeping talent in the likes of Tendai Mukuruva, Elvis Chipezeze and Donovan Benard — who have since overtaken Arubi.

These are the type of blunders which from the outset might look small, but can destroy a good coach’s record. Good coaches are known for making spot-on decisions, especially in high-profile matches, like the one against Guinea.

It is not good to spell doom for a national team. That goalkeeping choice and that home draw against the Syli Nationale might come back to haunt the Warriors at the end of the qualifying stages.

After looking at Pasuwa’s results at an international level, I am forced to conclude that Pasuwa needs some form of help. Now that we have a flurry of foreign coaches coming through — including Jorge Silva of Dynamos and Erol Akbay of Highlanders — I think we should take advantage of their availability and make full use of them.

The new Zifa regime has gone out of its way to find millions of dollars to bankroll the Warriors. The reason for this funding is to ensure that the Warriors succeed on the international front, and I do not think it would cost Zifa much to pay one of the foreign coaches to come in as Pasuwa’s technical advisor.

The arrangement would see Pasuwa retaining the power to call his choice of players into camp, as well as making the final team selection.

The technical advisor would only come in to assist with his technical and tactical knowledge of the international experience.

Our qualifying group for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers is not all that difficult. However, it is the same thing we were saying before the Warriors left for Rwanda, and the results were there for everyone to see — a total disaster.

We are surely in a very strong position to qualify for Gabon 2017, but sometimes sacrifices and bold decisions have to be made to make that dream a reality — even if it means bringing in a technical advisor against Pasuwa’s will.

After all, Pasuwa would still be able to enjoy his luxurious life and the huge pay package, even when there is a technical advisor to help him do his job.

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