For the first time since Michael Nees took charge of the Warriors of Zimbabwe, the team last Friday played with some sense of purpose in forcing a goalless draw with South Africa's Bafana Bafana.
Never over the past one and half years have the Warriors played with such resolve and debate is raging as to whether it is the Kaitano Tembo influence that has brought about all this sudden change.
Before Tembo's arrival, the Warriors looked just like a grouping of footballers with no system of play and calls were getting louder that Nees be sacked and somebody else take the team to Afcon.
Some even questioned whether this Nees guy was from the same Germany that gave Zimbabwe good coaches like the late Reinhard Fabisch, Rudi Gutendorf, and Klause Dieter Pagels, because there was nothing in common between his team's type of play and that of the three.
The calls for Nees' dismissal could even have been louder had the Warriors lost to South Africa but we are not sure whom he will thank for saving the bell— himself, Tembo — or the players who did the job on the pitch without being intimidated by South Africa's growing stature.
Against South Africa, Zimbabwe played a neat and tight game and a reproduction of just half of that performance against Lesotho on Tuesday, could surely guarantee a win for Zimbabwe against the Crocodiles in their last 2026 World Cup qualifier.
Even the song by Zifa president Nqobile Magwizi, We want to put one foot forward at Afcon, now has a meaning as after Friday's showing there are reasons to believe the Warriors can successfully negotiate their way from their group.
Moreso that South Africa are also in the same group with us and we are playing them at a neutral ground alongside Angola and Egypt with two teams automatically going through to the next round and the possibility of a third also sailing through as well.
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It is not mission impossible considering the quality of players at Zimbabwe's disposal, but it will also be up to Nees and Tembo to be spot-on in their final team selection and resist growing outside influence.
Interestingly, though, the five World Cup points we have are all from five drawn matches and three draws at Afcon might not be enough and we should learn to start scoring goals in order to win matches and smoothen our own path.
The Warriors remain rooted in bottom place in the six team group with five points, but South Africa would feel hard done by their neighbours Lesotho and Zimbabwe after slipping two points behind leaders Benin.
First, Bafana Bafana had three points deducted for illegal use of a player against Lesotho and now they have dropped two crucial points in the shock 0-0 draw with Zimbabwe.
We are not sure whether Magwizi received a handshake after the match from South African Football Association president Danny Jordan whom he was seated next to on the VVIP stand.
What we are sure of is that Zimbabwe did the unexpected by forcing a draw against South Africa and celebrations are still going on around the country as if the Warriors won the match.
The match also opened our eyes that there is another side of the Warriors which we didn't know and with one or two fine tunings the team could be a revelation at Afcon 2025.
It could be the Kaitano Tembo touch but after all that "Nees must go" chorus, there could be light at Afcon 2025.
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