Zimbabwe national Soccer team, The Warriors ended a six year hiatus from World cup football albeit a losing cause at the hands of Africa’s lowest ranked football nation, Somalia in Djibouti this evening in the first leg of a World Cup qualifying match, their first since their ban on 12 March 2015.
The Warriors were banned from taking part in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers for failing to pay former coach Valinhos, who later sought Fifa’s intervention.
The word ‘Pathetic’ sums up the Warriors performance against Africa’s lowest ranked football nation. The pathetic performance can be attributed to poor preparations which saw the new coach Joey Antipas and his technical team leave for the first leg of the encounter with a depleted squad that never had time to kick the ball together in training.
The Warriors performance was below par, however, goalkeeper Elvis Chipezeze had a good day between the sticks denying Somalia countable clear scoring chances with our defense caught in sixies and sevens.
It was the midfield marshalled by the Thabani Kamusoko that failed to stamp authority against a struggling Somalia team.
The Warriors letdown were its strikers who could not penetrate Somalia defense with their first ball contact leaving a lot to be desired.
However, the Warriors have room to make amends when they take on Somalia in a rescheduled second leg fixture at the giant National Sports Stadium on Tuesday in Harare.
Obviously, the warriors will be looking forward to their 12th men, the Warriors fans.
