BY HENRY MHARA
Zimbabwe boys’ soccer team are through to the finals of the Copa Coca-Cola Africa Cup of Nations Under-16 tournament after beating Zambia yesterday, thanks to the brilliance of goalkeeper Ronald Uraya.
The Pathias Mauto-coached side won the match 4-3 on penalties after it had ended 2-all in regulation time.
Zimbabwe will now meet Tanzania in today’s final, with the East African country also reaching the finals following another penalty shoot-out to edge hosts and defending champions Kenya.
Uraya scored a late penalty to equalise for Zimbabwe, a goal that forced the match into a penalty shoot-out.
The Prince Edward High School student then showed some nerve of steel to step up and take his team’s first penalty in the shoot-out which he converted.
He went on to save two spot-kicks to deny Zambia who were minutes away from booking their final berth.
Dylan Gumbe, who has been in prolific scoring form at this tournament, had scored the other goal for Zimbabwe in the first half, before Zambia roared back with two goals in the second half, and looked like they would win the match.
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That was before the agile Zimbabwean goalkeeper converted the penalty two minutes from time.
Luke Musikiri, skipper Alvin Dube and Steven Chatikobo were the other players who converted during the penalty shoot-out.
Mauto said his team lost focus after taking the lead, and almost paid a heavy price for it.
“The boys played our own style in the first 15 minutes and we managed to score a goal. After that we were too cautious and we lost concentration. That almost cost us,” Mauto said.
“Zambia then began to gain confidence and they managed to score two goals. But we started to play our normal passing game again in the second half and we created a lot of chances. We ended up getting a goal,” he added.
Mauto’s squad is made up of players selected at the Copa Coca-Cola national schools tournament held in Kadoma early this year.
Zimbabwe’s boys failed to go beyond the group stage in the inaugural tournament last year, which was also played in Kenya.
It was the girls’ team which performed well last year by winning a silver medal, losing to Kenya in the final.
There are no girls at this year’s tournament with organisers saying the majority of participating countries had a challenge raising teams.
