ZIMBABWE’S dream of participating in football at the Olympic Games in Brazil next year, was finally buried in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on Saturday night.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
While it is the inevitable consequence of lack of meticulous planning and organisation on the part of the soccer controlling body — Zifa — the death of Zimbabwe’s Olympic dream took place in Harare at Rufaro Stadium two weeks back on July 19.
That was the day the Young Warriors surrendered the chase for glory at the eight-nation tournament to be held in Senegal in December, where the top three teams would automatically qualify for the Rio Olympics.
The visitors displayed pure force and class to secure a crucial away goal in a 1-1 draw against the Young Warriors courtesy of midfielder Keagan Dolly — one of the best players on the afternoon. The display by the visitors left nuetrals nodding in acknowledgement of one of the best shows by a South African football side.Zimbabwe then equalised on 83 minutes through Walter Musona who converted from a spot kick to force a share of the spoils after South Africa captain Ishmael Mngonyama handled inside the penalty box.
But for all intents and purposes, that draw was a defeat. This is because the away goal scored by South Africa meant Zimbabwe needed at least a scoring draw better than 1-1 in South Africa to advance. Now history has shown that it is easier to win at home where you have the backing of the home crowd than in foreign territory where you can be subjected to all sorts of intimidating tactics.
And when you factor in that the technically-superior South African side had outclassed them at home in all aspects of the game except on the scoreboard in the first leg in Harare, it needed a miracle for Kalisto Pasuwa’s men to turn the tables in Pietermaritzburg. They paid the price for it as the 3-0 defeat in South Africa on Saturday ensured South Africa’s passage to the tournament on a 4-1 aggregate win.
Of course, Zifa played a key role in the latest failure by Zimbabwe. Since Pasuwa was asked to lead the Young Warriors last year doubling as the coach of the senior team — Warriors — he has not been getting any allowances with the cash-strapped soccer mother body making promise after promise which they failed to fulfil.
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On Monday last week, Pasuwa was supposed to be in camp with the boys to prepare for the sink-or-swim qualifier away to South Africa, but he didn’t turn up. Zifa had not paid him even a dime despite having promised him so. Now when you have your national team coach and the players on national duty failing to get paid even allowances ahead of such a crucial game, it provides a graphic illustration of how the beautiful game has been killed.
As if that was not enough, Zifa failed to feed the players who were in camp on Wednesday culminating in the players refusing to train in the afternoon. Although Pasuwa later agreed to lead the team to South Africa despite not having been paid, Zimbabwe’s fate had already been sealed.
On the contrary, South Africa coach Owen Da Gama revealed after the match that the 3-0 victory over Zimbabwe was one of his greatest coaching highlights.
He said he was indebted to the South African Football Association (Safa) and the Premier Soccer League for their unwavering support.
“I have always said I am looking beyond Senegal. With this type of show, I have little doubt South Africa will be one of the three countries headed for the Rio Olympics next year. I am sensing something extraordinary from this team. We just need to continue having proper preparations, a collective approach going forward and of course proper planning.
“I must add that I have had great support from all South Africans including the Premier Soccer League clubs, the Safa hierarchy led by president Danny Jordaan, my support staff of Shaun Bartlett and Deshi Bhaktawer and of course the players themselves deserve the utmost praise.
“The new Safa leadership has invested heavily in making sure Vision 2022 is realised and as we can all see, if the country continues to support this initiative, we are headed for the top as a country. All our national teams have started to make a statement on the continent and we can only get better,” added Da Gama.
Zimbabwe have never made it to the Olympics in their history coming agonisingly close to qualifying for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney under then coach Dutchman Clemence Westerhof only to be eliminated by the Eaglets of Nigeria who handed them a harsh football lesson in a 4-0 rout in a game they needed just a draw to seal a ticket to the finals.
