Tag: Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE AFRICAN CUP QUALIFICATION HOPES ALIVE

Posted in Zimbabwe Football.

The Warriors as popularly touted had a resounding victory against Swaziland. Zimbabwe won the match with a convincing 4-0 victory. The AFCON qualifier match was played at the National Sport Stadium with Zimbabwe ending the hopes of Swaziland. Swaziland is one of the teams not to have featured in the Cup Finals.

The Callisto Pasuwa led team came with victory in mind. They attacked Swaziland from the get-go. The Warriors started creating chances from the first minute as they knew an early goal would rattle their fearful opponents. Marshall Mudehwe and Kuda Mahachi led the creative play and it almost had a goal within the first few minutes of play. Midfielder,

Marvelous Nakamba sustained attacks against Swaziland but the attacks were always foiled last minute. Marshali Mudehwe had the best chance of the opening minutes but his shot was too weak to challenge the Swaziland goal stopper.

The Swaziland team was not all dull. In the 24th minute, they made a sustained attack that even scored but was ruled offside by the linesman. Zimbabwe felt threatened with the disallowed goal. So they pressed in the 35th minute. Musona almost scored with a well played shot that forced the best from the swaziland goal keeper.

As at halftime, The Warriors were yet to break the deadlock despite the flurry of attacks against the seemingly compact opposition. Immediately after the break, Callisto Pasuwa made several changes. He sent in Khama Billit to replace Marshall Mudehwe. The attacks from the Warriors continued. It resulted in a foul in the box when Kuda Mahachi was brought down by the Swaziland defense. Musona put the well struck penalty past the goal keeper.

The pressure continued and was rewarded with another goal that broke the resolve of the Swaziland team. Costa Nhamoinesu, a Zimbabwean defender headed home the goal after substitute Khama Billit sent a well played free kick in the 58th minute. (more…)

Guus Hiddink reckons the level of Football in English Premiership

Posted in Zimbabwe Football.

Guus Hiddink reckons the level of Football in English Premiership is not the same as it was when he was into his first stint as the manager of Chelsea.

Hiddink had had a short stint at Chelsea a few years back.

According to him, at that time, the competition was used to be amongst the top 4 or 5 teams and the rest of the teams were not able to put up that much of a fight, but, what he is seeing this time around is that it has got much tighter and the minnows have also started winning games on a consistent basis.

Hiddink was quoted as saying, “I can see the Football in England is more intense now than before and you can’t take anyone for granted. “

“The teams who would always be around bottom 3 in the past are in the top half of the table these days because they are playing quality Football.”

“And, the fact that they have grown in quality and have fetched good results, it is now allowing them to lure top players in the world to join in.”

Hiddink, who is not the permanent boss of Chelsea this time around either and is at Stamford only on an interim basis just like it was the case with him in 2009, dropped hints that he would be looking to give opportunities to the youngsters in Chelsea Academy to play in the top tier, but, only if he feels they are good enough to take the pressure. (more…)

Zimbabwe coach Callisto Pasuwa has warned his players against complacency

Posted in Zimbabwe Football.

Zimbabwe coach Callisto Pasuwa has warned his players against complacency when they take on Comoros in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. After having recently achieved a 2-1 win over Malawi, the team will be feeling confident ahead of this home clash.

Comoros are rated as one of the minnows in African football, butPasuwa states that this game could be a potential banana skin for the home team. Zimbabwe have been on a roll in recent months after achieving numerous victories. The 4-1 defeat against Namibia stands out as the only disappointing return in the last couple of months.

Zimbabwe were in the same group along with Swaziland, Guinea, and Malawi. After this positive result in the opening match, the national team will feel confident about their chances of reaching the 2016 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.Pasuwa has managed to achieve this result by introducing a lot of freshness into the national team. There are some players who are part of the under 23 team, while the remaining have made up of the domestic top names. The two have combined extremely well and the tactics ofPasuwa cannot be better at the moment.Pasuwa was appointed as the coach only in April 2015 and he has since suffered only one defeat. (more…)

Zimbabwean football has suffered a major setback

Posted in Zimbabwe Football.

Zimbabwean football has suffered a major setback after FIFA decided to eliminate them from the upcoming 2018 World Cup qualifiers – even before it has begun – due to the outstanding payments that the national team have with former coach Jose ClaudineiGeorgini.

Zimbabwe are currently coached by Ian Gorowa and the team has largely been playing in friendly matches and African tournaments due to their latest suspension from FIFA. The lack of support from the government means that Zimbabwean FA finds itself in a huge amount of debt. As a result, they have been unable to pay their former coach.

The communications manager of the Zimbabwe FA says that they will be appealing against this decision by the world football Council. However, any resolution will have to be swift since the World Cup qualifying matches will start from October once the draw is made in July. Zimbabwe have never qualified for a World Cup tournament and they do not seem in a great position to do so once again. The team were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations in the qualification stage to add to the misery. The last competitive match played by Zimbabwe was back in June 2014 when they were involved in a 2-2 draw against Tanzania during the two legged qualification match. (more…)

INTEGRATION IS KEY

Posted in Uncategorized.

Zimbabwe’s national team manager Ian Gorowa will have the opportunity to integrate home and foreign-based players when his team take on Malawi in a friendly match. This will be a great opportunity to improve the team ahead of the 2015 African nations cup qualifiers. Zimbabwe have been struggling to deal with politics within the country and it has taken its toll on the national team as well. Even though they suffered only two defeats after the recent African nations cup Championship, many reckon that Africa still has a long way to go before it sees the best out of Zimbabwe.

Gorowa has named a team that will see six foreign players be part of the squad. Apart from the friendly against South Africa, which is Zimbabwe lost 2-1, Gorowa has not had the opportunity to field foreign players on a regular basis. These foreign based players provide a lot of quality to the team given that they are regularly competing against some of the best in the world. Gorowa has urged the best players from Zimbabwe to grab the opportunity to play abroad especially in Europe. Zifa communications manager, Xolisani Gwesela, says that the nation will be looking to use this friendly to improve ahead of the 2015 African nations cup qualifiers.

“We usually place lot of importance in such matches for obvious reasons. The first is that the coach has a number of players he wants to look at and these players need to be exposed at the international stage. Secondly we want our national team to be a major force to reckon with in the SADC region and in the whole of Africa. So, funds permitting and depending on the logistics, we will take every opportunity to play these friendly internationals,” said Gwesela.

Zimbabwe later managed a 4-1 win over Malawi in the friendly match.