THE dismal performance by the Warriors at the weekend when they played Guinea needs to be assessed openly.
When the Warriors performed badly during the last World Cup, African Cup of Nations qualifiers, we blamed the coach and had Charles Mhlauri fired. Where do we go from here?
Everyone involved with soccer that is the government, Zifa, corporate world, players and technical team must have a clear vision. At times financial support has been lacking or has come late. We have read of bonuses being paid late, poor accommodation during camp and all these problems have a bearing on the way the team delivers.
The problem does not lie with the coach only, but the quality of players as well. It seems we have no junior development programme that we can tape and nurture players from.
Charles Mhlauri, Sunday Chidzambwa were good coaches who should have had enough time to build a team. This reaction of firing a coach after poor results without looking deep at the causes of the problem will not take us anywhere. Mhlauri and Chidzambwa were the only coaches to have taken us to the Afcon champions in Tunisia and Egypt.
Zifa should be proactive and not reactionary in handling soccer matters.
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The Warriors team lacks a natural stricker in the likes of Adam Ndlovu.
Fans used to pay just to go and see Moses Chunga play at Dynamos and for the national team.
He could finish with precision. He scored 46 goals in one season in 1986 and was crowned Soccer Star of the Year.
On Sunday’s game I place much of the blame on Joel Lupahla.
He was mean and should have passed the ball that he missed widely to Edward Sadomba who was well positioned to score.
Team-play lacks and with such mediocrity and greediness, one cannot blame the coach.
It looks like we are out of the World Cup and Afcon Cup contentions and we need to revamp the whole team as a matter of urgency.
There is no need to continue with the likes of James Matola, Esrom Nyandoro and other senior guys who will not be eligible for 2014. These guys will no longer play for the Warriors in 2014 which is the next contention after we bungled on 2010 soccer showcase.
We need to get younger players like Archiford Gutu, Ovid Karuru, Zhaimu Jambo and Pride Tafirenyika only to mention a few.
Norman Mapeza is a good coach and if he is to assist Valinhos, he is able to take over the reigns when Valinhos’ term expires.
We are out but need to build for the future and it has to start now. All the players who will not be eligible for 2014 have no need to be called for play. Rebuild now for future glory.
We do not need three managers for the national team.
There is Shariff Mussa, Ernest “Mapepa” Sibanda and Charles “Mafripa” Dzvairo. There is a duplication of roles.
Each one of them could be pushing for the selection of certain players and we end up with a compromised team.
Trim the technical bench. We should have maintained the team that beat Malawi. You can say Malawi is a small team, no, the same Malawi beat giants Egypt that beat us home and away.
We need to develop soccer from grassroots. There are a number of businesspeople who have sponsored football at grassroots level. Today players in the Premier League came from such tournaments; Vincent Nzombe, playing for Caps FC, Ali Kazembe who plays for Eastern Lions came from the Kestrenal High Schools Tournament from Mashonaland West, Evans Gwekwerere from Douglas Warriors and many others not mentioned.
Let the powers that run football take it to heart so that we progress for big showcases otherwise we are doomed.
M Mutinhima
Harare.
