So, Ethiopia scored a dramatic 95th-minute winner at the Bahir Dar Stadium on Tuesday evening to take the Walias up to joint-second in the World Cup Group G qualifier and condemn Zimbabwe to what we feared they had become – pretenders.
The result means Bafana Bafana remain on top of the Group with four points.
Ghana and Ethiopia level on three points while the Warriors anchor the Group with one point.
Everything Zimbabwe has experimented on in the last six months has not yielded any positive result.
Not even a US$64,000 cash price promised to players had they won today, made the team play better. It’s not about lack of money. It’s structural.
Zimbabwe has kept coach Zdravco Logarusic who is not respected by players and distrusted by fans. He is now on a miserable tally of one win in his 14 matches.
The appointment of former Manchester City striker Benjani Mwaruwari as assistant coach and Kudzai Chitima as the performance has not changed the Warriors fortunes.
It’s the first time Zimbabwe has had a performance analyst.
However, It’s unlikely that the technical team will sync. They don’t respect each other and did not implement what each thought in the Zimbabwe vs Bafana match.
The world over, a coach hunts with his own dogs. He chooses his own technical team and doesn’t have one chosen for him.
Before Mwaruwari and Chitima came in, the technical team was already on fire. Warriors assistant coach Tonderayi Ndiraya and Chitembwe were said to be downplaying Logarusic’s decisions and were on the bench as ceremonial heads in constant disagreements of all decisions made.
The World Cup is not within our reach. We had, perhaps, the most talented generation of our time, but they lack character, respect or hunger to convert that potential.
It is time to start building the tean around 25-year-old Marshall Munetsi and Marvelous Nakamba, 26. Players who are still hungry to prove themselves. The national team is in a crisis. They need a crisis response.
