Orlando Pirates striker, Tendai Ndoro’s scoring form in the South African top-flight football league highlights Warriors coach, Kalisto Pasuwa’s wonderful selection headache ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Gabon, where he will be torn to pick one between the former Chicken Inn forward and China-based Nyasha Mushekwi.
By Kevin mapasure
Ndoro has enjoyed a purple patch since he got his chance midway into the 2015-16 South African season.
To date, the striker has scored 20 times in the calendar year, and currently leads the scoring charts in the elite league, where he has found the back of the net 10 times in all competitions.
He is already a firm favourite for the Golden Boot Award before the season has even reached halfway.
Ndoro has been going at a rate of a goal a game having scored nine goals from as many matches, four more than his closest rival, Lebogang Manyama of Cape Town City.
Last year, Ndoro was frozen out of the starting line-up by the then coach, Eric Tinkler, but once he got his opportunity in February, he has been scoring for fun and has been rated as one of the best strikers in the league.
He has a return of 20 goals from 28 starts and has scored in each of the last four games for his club.
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His statistics beg for a starting place in the Warriors squad on any day, but so do those of his main rival – Mushekwi.
If the past few Warriors’ games are anything to go by, then Pasuwa probably prefers Mushekwi to Ndoro.
The former Caps United striker enjoyed a good season in his first term at Chinese second-tier side, Dalian Lifang, where he scored 20 goals in the league alone.
Mushekwi was beaten to the Golden Boot Award by Brazilian forward, Luis Fabiano of Tianjn Quanjian, who finished with 22 goals. Fabian was named the Most Valuable Player in the league after leading his team to the championship and promotion to the Super League.
Mushekwi, who had stints with Mamelodi Sundowns, KV Oostende of Belgium and Djugardens of Sweden, made 30 appearances for his club to reach the 20-goal mark, but they suffered the heartbreak of missing out on qualification to the top-flight.
With both strikers so prolific in front of goal, Pasuwa will probably consider other attributes like ability to bring others into play.
He may want to consider the striker whom Knowledge Musona and Khama Billiat can benefit from.
Both featured in the last international friendly, where the Warriors played agianst Tanzania, with Mushekwi scoring one of the goals.
Ndoro made a substitute appearance in that match following up on his start in the Afcon qualifier against Malawi in September, where he had an hour run-out without success in front of goal.
With Zifa frantically trying to organise more international friendlies for the team ahead of the Afcon finals, Pasuwa has time to assess everything about his two target men, even though Evans Rusike and Cuthbert Malajila may be a threat to the two.
While Pasuwa plots and plans for the big tournament, where Zimbabwe will face Senegal, Algeria and Tunisia in the group stages, the debate on which players should form the core of the team will continue raging.
