A moment of truth tomorrow awaits the Warriors of Zimbabwe when they enter the field of play for their opening Afcon 2025 match against the Pharaohs of Egypt.
A lot has been said about this Warriors side and most of it not good and against the Pharaohs the Warriors have the chance to prove all the critics and doubters wrong.
Few of those who have spoken good about their own team are those who have predicted low scoring defeats for the Warriors in all their first three matches against Egypt, Angola, and South Africa.
The players are well aware of this lack of faith and belief from their own supporters and have resolved to shut out the world and social media to focus on the job at hand - their matches.
The opening match against Egypt is the most important and the Warriors need at least a draw not only to boost their chances of qualification, but also to boost confidence for the other games against Angola and the Bafana Bafana.
Although Egypt are seven time champions, of late they have not been the dominant force of old with the honour of the top African football teams now in the hands of Morocco and Senegal.
Although it would be folly or too much to expect the Warriors to pick up three points against the Egyptians, we cannot rule out chances of the underdogs punching out for a draw.
It is possible in football considering that world football history is littered with upsets, the latest being Cameroon and Nigeria's elimination from the 2026 World Cup by of all teams, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Nobody even expected little Cape Verde to qualify for the World Cup, but the African country of less than one million people will be among the 64 top football teams from around the world, who will be at the 2026 global football gathering.
Surely, Zimbabwe might be missing Marshall Munetsi, Jordan Zemura, and Andy Rinomhota but a new star or new stars could be born in their place and the game against Egypt is the perfect stage for that.
A draw against Egypt would be the tonic that Zimbabwe needs and would attract attention to a team that only a few are talking about -- that is, if there are any apart from Zimbabweans.
In reality, however, that draw looks like a dream that will never come true as the Warriors at hand do not seem to have the overall strength and team spirit to withstand the Egyptian onslaught.
Even saddening is that Zimbabwe will only have a handful of fans in attendance as the soccer supporters bodies in this country are ineffective and only exist in name.
Although the Warriors qualified long back, the Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association and the Friends of the Warriors have not been able to organise themselves to have their members travel to Morocco.
The supporter organisations are only active when there are no such tournaments as Afcon, but when they do come it is every man for half as even the leaders go out there to seek sponsorship for themselves and not a package for the members.
This is the reason why the same old faces travel around with the Warriors when the rest of the fans are always at home because sponsorship is sought on cartel basis.
This time around, though, Zifa have done more than what they could to prepare the team and also to guarantee its finances and it is now up to the Warriors to repay them.
However, there is something out there that tells us that the Warriors will be coming home early after losing all their group matches - do you agree ?
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