A 1-0 loss to Guinea last night in a dead rubber 2014 World Cup football qualifier completed a miserable week for the Warriors at the Stade du 28 Septembre in Conakry, ensuring Zimbabwe remained winless in the current campaign.
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Mohamed Yattara, who plays for Troyes in the French Ligue One, scored in the 39th minute after the Warriors had held on for the better part of the game.
Fielding a depleted side due to Zifa’s horrendous travelling arrangements and missing six players — Knowledge Musona, Patson Jaure, Ovidy Karuru, Hardlife Zvirekwi, Mathew Rusike and Khama Billiat — the Warriors simply stood no chance.
But they held on until the 39th minute in this dead rubber match before Yattara struck again in the 90th minute.
There was, however, confusion over the final scoreline with Fifa.com pulling off the 2-0 score to remain with 1-0, while MTN Football, Supersport and Livescore.com had 2-0. Various French websites also had 2-0, with Yattara scoring in the 39th and 90th minute.
Supersport Blitz had 2-0.
Other respected websites Goal.com and Soccerway had 1-0 while Benedict Moyo, the head of delegation reached by NewsDay Sport last night confirmed the 2-0 scoreline.
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Fifa had this advisory note on their website: “All match data is provisional until the Fifa official match report is available.”
Dead rubber was the match in the sense that two hours before the start of the game, the Warriors’ nightmare at the National Sports Stadium last Sunday, Mohammed Salah, had struck in the 40th minute to break the Mozambicans’ resistance in Maputo, sending group leaders Egypt to the last qualifying round with one game to spare.
It keeps alive the hopes of a first World Cup appearance for the North African side since Italia 90, despite them having dominated the continent at both national team and club level for the last decade.
It is vindication too for the work done by American coach Bob Bradley, who has initiated a programme of rebuilding the national team.
The only goal of the game came five minutes before the break with Egypt having dominated play before they comfortably held on in the second period for the win.
In other qualifiers yesterday, Ivory Coast became the first country to reach the play-offs in the Africa zone qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup after winning 4-2 in Tanzania.
The result gave the “Elephants” from West Africa an unassailable five-point Group C lead over Morocco, who triumphed 2-0 against bottom side Gambia in Marrakech late Saturday.
Substitute Wilfried Bony sealed victory for the 2006 and 2010 World Cup qualifiers with a goal three minutes into stoppage time at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in the Indian Ocean city of Dar es Salaam.
The other five goals came in a thrilling first half with Amri Kiemba giving Tanzania the lead on two minutes and Russia-based beanpole striker Lacina Traore levelling.
Reigning African Footballer of the Year Yaya Touré nudged Ivory Coast in front midway through the half, Thomas Ulimwengu equalised and Toure struck again by converting a penalty just before half-time.
In another match, Ethiopia beat South Africa 2-1 in Addis Ababa to destroy Bafana Bafana’s chances of reaching the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Bernard Parker scored two fantastic goals — but unfortunately the second was past his own goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune to hand Ethiopia the win and the three points.
Parker opened the scoring on 34 minutes with a textbook volley, off a long ball from Khune.
Ethiopia equalised just eight minutes later, when Getaneh Kebede hit home after some indecisive play by the Bafana defence.
The match was sealed in the 70th minute when Parker scored with possibly the best header of his career, off an Ethiopia free-kick.
Ethiopia top the World Cup qualifying group with 13 points, and will stay top no matter what the results of the final round of matches are. The Waila Antelopes advance to the third round of qualifying, where the 10 group winners from the second round are drawn into five home and away matches.
The five winners advance to the finals.
