The Cosafa Cup is just around the corner and Zimbabwe’s Warriors will be one of the teams that are expected to gather in South Africa for the 12-team competition.
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MICHAEL KARIATI
The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) made it clear earlier this year that Zimbabwe would be using this regional competition to fine-tune their team for the World Cup matches against Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa.
At first, we saw no reason in taking our best players to a tournament which is not recognised on the Fifa international calendar.
We questioned how such a lowkey competition could be used to sharpen a team that would face the mighty Black Stars and their classy legion of international stars.
However, we have been forced to rethink after realising that the Warriors might not get another opportunity to play together as a team before the 2022 World Cup qualifiers get into motion.
The days set aside by Fifa for international friendlies came and went without the Warriors getting onto the field of play even though it was easier and cheaper at that time to group the players together for a game.
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That leaves the Warriors with little or no chance at all of playing together as a unit before the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, where they open their campaign against neighbours South Africa.
Warriors coach Zdravko Logarusic has come out clear that he needs to have a look at a number of players, including former Everton defender Brendon Galloway, before he finalises his team for the World Cup assignments.
Zifa promised Loga would get that chance in the Cosafa Cup, but sadly, a look at the team called for the tournament does not show any glimpse of preparing for the World Cup at all.
Almost the same team of locally based players that disappointed at the 2020 Chan tournament is the team that has been assembled for this regional competition where Senegal were invited.
There are only six players — Martin Mapisa, Ovidy Karuru, Jimmy Dzingai, Carlos Mavhurume, Perfect Chikwende and King Nadolo — in the Cosafa Cup-bound team who were in the provisional 30-member squad that Loga had called for the South Africa World Cup match which was later postponed.
Ironically, competitive football has not yet started in most parts of Europe and it was not going to be all that difficult to bring the likes of Galloway, Jordan Zemura, Admiral Muskwe, Tendai Darikwa and David Moyo from their bases in the United Kingdom, and Alec Mudimu from Turkey.
Some of the foreign-based players were even in Zimbabwe for their off-season holiday and could have been persuaded to stay a bit longer for the Cosafa Cup at no cost at all to Zifa.
The football authorities have not given any explanation why Zimbabwe has — as promised — not called these players to come and use the three or so Cosafa Cup matches to warm up for the World Cup assignments ahead.
However, there is every reason to suspect that Zifa are trying to avoid the costs of transporting the players for the Cosafa competition, and have instead, gone for the cheaper option of using locally based players.
Yet this time around, last year, the national football federation was bragging that it had enough financial resources to bankroll the Warriors all the way to the tilt.
If Zifa were really serious about using the Cosafa Cup for World Cup preparations in the midst of financial constraints, why didn’t they call readily available players from South Africa, and Zambia, who were shortlisted by Loga for the World Cup game against South Africa?
There is Talbert Shumba, Tafadzwa Rusike, Thabani Kamusoko and Takudzwa Chimwemwe, who are on off-season in Zambia but were overlooked for the Cosafa Cup despite being in the provisional squad for the initial game against South Africa.
So too is Knox Mutizwa, Onismor Bhasera, Divine Lunga, Kuda Mahachi, Terence Dzvukamanja and Butholezwe Ncube, in South Africa, who could have used the Cosafa Cup to prepare for their World Cup duties.
Instead, Zifa have chosen to disrupt the momentum of clubs in the Chibuku Super Cup by taking away their best players when there was a more beneficial option available.
What Zifa are forgetting is that the World Cup is no child’s play and is far much different from the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) where luck and the draw sometimes plays a part in determining who goes to the finals.
We can say we qualified for Afcon without preparations, but Zambia and Swaziland cannot be compared to Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia. More so, that only one team from the group goes through.
Not mentioning that there is another game waiting after the group stages.
Surely, we might have ridden our luck in qualifying for the Afcon now and before, but the World Cup is not about luck but seriousness. At the rate we are going, a dark cloud awaits ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.
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