Warriors save the best for last

By Tichaona Sibanda
01 February 2006

Zimbabwe’s gallant perfomance on Tuesday night might have saved coach Charles Mhlauri’s job, which was hanging by a thread following two dismal showings against Senegal and Nigeria.

In the last few days following the Warriors’ 2-0 defeat to Nigeria, television chat-shows and radio phone-ins were dominated by fans calling for Mhlauri’s head.

But following the Warriors’ stunning victory over mighty Ghana in Ismailia, Egypt on Tuesday night, most fans seem to have had a change of heart and are instead urging the Zimbabwe Football Association to sign him on a permanent basis.

Steve Nyoka, an ardent Warriors fan and an official of the Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association, said the whole nation was ecstatic after the final whistle but were also disappointed at narrowly missing out on the quarter-finals.

‘Every soccer fan in the country agrees the team improved with each performance. Against Nigeria the team was unlucky not to secure a draw and against Ghana the team proved it had the talent to take on anyone in Africa,’ said Nyoka.

A late disallowed goal saw the Warriors narrowly miss out on the African Nations Cup quarter-finals despite beating Ghana 2-1. Goals by Cephas Chimedza and Benjani gave the Warriors a well deserved victory over the Black Stars, who pulled a goal late in injury time leaving their World Cup final hopes very dim.

However it could all have been even better for the Warriors and their legion of fans had Joel Lupahla's last minute tap in not been disallowed as an offside. This allowed Senegal to progress as second in Group D despite losing 2-1 to Nigeria. Final Log standing in Group D