ON a chilly Sunday afternoon on June 3 2012, Guinea came to the giant National Sports Stadium and stole a 1-0 victory over the Warriors, extinguishing Zimbabwe’s hopes of making an appearance at the world football extravaganza —the World Cup — which was later held in Brazil.
Brian Nkiwane It was Syli Nationale’s talisman Ibrahima Traore who struck a perfect free kick in the first-half that beat Tapuwa Kapini, and the visitors held on to the precious lead. Today, Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa and his troops come face to-face with the same opponents in the Afcon 2017 qualifier at Rufaro this afternoon, knowing very well the danger the visitors can pose, even without the dangerman (Traore) who could not make the trip to Zimbabwe.
The Warriors will be gunning for sweet revenge.
The scars of another defeat last year to lowly-ranked Tanzania which ended the country’s hopes of making it to the 2015 Nations Cup finals on the first attempt, will keep lingering in Pasuwa’s mind, reminding him and his troops that the nation is this time expecting nothing short of victory.
Despite the numerous problems that the Warriors have endured in camp, Pasuwa and his captain Willard Katsande have declared the problems will not divert their attention in this afternoon’s encounter.
The Warriors have had to do with late lunches, as well as delayed transportation to and from training venues. The situation escalated on Friday after their training session was delayed because the bus which was supposed to pick them up had to go to the airport to pick up visiting Guinea.
Once again, Zifa bungled as there were no officials to meet Guinea at the airport and the visiting team almost took a commuter omnibus to their hotel. Guinea sent their advance team to Zimbabwe four weeks ago to do all food and accommodation payments, on their own.
On Thursday, panic gripped the nation when the Worriors failed to turn up for the afternoon session on time, demanding to meet Zifa officials, with whom they wanted to clarify issues to do with their outstanding allowances from the Malawi match.
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But Pasuwa dispelled the fears, saying the boys simply wanted to understand the situation on the ground.
“There are lots of things that have been happening during our time in camp. It’s not like the players wanted to strike over the much talked about allowances, No. The captain and his boys only wanted to know whether the money would come or not. If it’s going to come, the better, but if it’s not, then there is nothing that we can do. I can assure the nation that this will not have any bearing on our performance,” Pasuwa said.
He, however, warned his charges against getting too excited ahead of this crucial encounter.
“The problem that I am having now is that everyone, including the fans, already thinks that we have won the match by just looking at the names that we have in camp, but football is crazy, so we must not start celebrating yet,” Pasuwa said
Another plus to Pasuwa’s countdown to the match has been the clean bill of health in camp, except for marksman Knowledge Musona who had to train with a strapped knee on Friday. Pasuwa, however, said it was nothing serious.
“We have a clean bill of health in camp. Musona got a bruise on his knee, but it’s nothing very serious,”he said.
A visit to the Warriors afternoon training session on Friday saw Khama Billiat, Mathew Rusike and Danny Phiri taking chances to execute set pieces, corner kicks, free kicks and penalties, a sign that Pasuwa would want to throw everything at Guinea to come out victorious.
Washington Arubi is set to reclaim his number one jersey, which Tatenda Mukuruva and Benard Donavan have been taking turns to snatch, with Paston Jaure and Milton Ncube looked set to be favoured on the left and right wing back flanks.
Eric Chipeta and Costa Nhamoinesu are set to partner in the heart of defence. A double defensive midfield duo of skipper Katsande and Phiri is highly likely, with Billiat and Ronald Chitiyo coming in on the left and right flanks.
It looks likely that Nyasha Mushekwi and Musona will hunt for goals in a two-pronged attack. But Pasuwa was coy about his strategy as he named his final squad of 18 at lunch time yesterday.
He dropped Chicken Inn striker Edmore Chirambadare, ZPC Kariba’s Raphael Manuvire and CAPS United’s Chris Mverechena.
Meanwhile, The Footballers Union of Zimbabwe, in partnership with their friends in the United States, donated 300 bottles of energy drinks to the national team ahead of the crunch match this afternoon. Speaking at the hand-over event, FUZ secretary general Paul Gundani said it was the begining of bigger things to come.
“Everything starts from somewhere. We will keep on supporting the Warriors in their endeavour to qualify for Afcon 2017,” Gundani said
