Zifa’ coaching gamble

By The Standard | Jul. 9, 2017

The decision by the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) to appoint three different coaches for the Warriors’ for different assignments might be paying dividends right now, but it has far-reaching repercussions for the future.

insidesport with MICHAEL KARIATI

So far, it is good, after Norman Mapeza’s Africa Cup of Nations squad thumped Liberia 3-0 while Sunday Chidzambwa’s Cosafa Castle Cup team is through to the final of the 14-team regional tournament where they will play Zambia in the final this afternoon.

Whatever happens at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Chidzambwa’s side has done more than what was expected of them and are set for a hero’s welcome upon their return from South Africa.

Success for the two teams has brought football fans together but what Zifa cannot run away from is the fact that there is bound to be comparison in the manner in which the three teams will play which certainly will create problems.

Not only will the fans align themselves to one coach but the players themselves will also be divided on which coach they are comfortable working with. What Zimbabwean football does not want is a situation where the players and the coaches live in a world where there is no trust.

While this three-coach system would have worked in countries like Nigeria where the Afcon and the World Cup teams are far much different from the regional and the Chan team, this is not so in Zimbabwe where the majority of the players for the three teams are local or South Africa-based.

Basically, the same players will work under three different coaches and the results of such a set-up builds mistrust, and above all, suspicion when a player regularly performs brilliantly under one coach and badly with the other.

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With Chidzambwa having set the pace with his trailblazing Cosafa Cup team, what he has done will be judged against what Gumbo and Mapeza will do and that will bring far reaching conclusions.

To avoid problems in future, Zifa should do the simplest of things of appointing their own national team coach who will be in charge of all the assignments, instead of planting a seed for hate.

Karuru fits the bill

For years, the Warriors of Zimbabwe have been lacking a naturally-gifted midfielder in the form of Ronald “Gidiza” Sibanda — someone capable of winning balls in midfield, dribbling his way through and feeding the strikers.

The country’s reliable and trusted strikers Knowledge Musona and Khama Billiat have over the years been forced to drop deeper into the midfield to search for balls.

This has deprived the Warriors of the opportunity to realise the maximum number of goals they are capable of getting.

A look at the current Warriors shows that the team is full of defensive midfielders — Marvelous Nakamba, Danny Phiri, and Thabani Kamusoko — and does not have that player with the “midas touch”.

But thanks to the 2017 Cosafa Castle Cup, Chidzambwa has resurrected the international career of the man who fits perfectly into that role of creating the chances for others and scoring goals himself — Ovidy Karuru.

Karuru enchanted Zimbabwean football followers and southern Africa as a whole with his scoring touch but in a Warriors set up that already has Musona and Billiat up for goals, Karuru fits in the role of playing just behind the strikers — creating the chances for Musona and Billiart while scoring himself.

Lively and skillful, Karuru covers the ball so well and is difficult to unsettle once he has started his run.

He gets past opponents so easily and scores great goals himself. One wonders, how such a fine player could have failed to make the grade at such lowly-ranked French sides like Boulogne and OH Leuven in Belgium.

However, South African club Amazulu are lucky to have him, so too, are the Warriors as they seek another appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations come 2019.

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