THE Warriors will on Friday kick-start their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations campaign with an away match against Kenya which will be hosted in Uganda.
Four days later The Warriors will host their home match against Cameroon at the same venue as they push for a place at the continental showpiece that will be staged in Morocco.
Zimbabwe missed out on the last edition of the Afcon finals which was played in Ivory Coast having been shut out of the qualifiers by a Fifa ban.
Their last dance at the big football gala was in Cameroon where they qualified under the then coach Norman Mapeza.
This time around they begin a new era under German coach Michael Nees who will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sunday Chidzambga, Charles Mhlauri, Kalisto Pasuwa and Norman Mapeza who led The Warriors to the finals.
No foreign coach has ever taken the national men’s football team to the finals and Nees will be hoping to be the first to achieve the feat.
As The Warriors begin their quest everyone is hoping they make the fast start they need so that they can set themselves on the path to Morocco.
Of course Zifa could have done better to prepare the team for its next two assignments.
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Firstly it bungled in the appointment of the coach and Nees only arrived in the country days before the matches and he registered his discontent over the time availed for preparations.
Zifa slept on duty and could not secure a stadium closer to home either in South Africa or Botswana in time.
South Africa is under pressure from several countries in the region that do not have Caf certified stadia as they choose to host their matches down there.
Zifa, which dwells on power struggles more than its main duties, found the available facilities having been snapped up by quick thinking associations.
At least playing in South Africa would have guaranteed The Warriors a good partisan crowd as was witnessed when they hosted Lesotho at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.
But despite the challenges, we are backing The Warriors to go out there and play their hearts out and get good results.
Zimbabwe has a lot of talent in this group of players such that even Kenya national team coach Engin Firat touted Zimbabwe as the most dangerous side in their group which includes Namibia.
We hope The Warriors will summon all their skills and push themselves beyond their limits and qualify.
We believe The Warriors have enough talent to finish at the top of the four-team group and qualify. Quality is there in the team. What is left is for Nees to put his ducks in a row.
We wish The Warriors the best in this journey.
