THE Zimbabwe senior men’s football team, the Warriors, are a mere two points away from qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco following back-to-back-wins against Namibia at Orlando Stadium within a week.
In fact, if they can get a point against Kenya in their next match in November, they will book a ticket to yet another Afcon final.
Impressive was the performance in the reverse match which was played on Monday where the Michael Nees-coached side pulled off an assured 3-1 win over the Brave Warriors of Namibia.
In the first tie last week, Zimbabwe needed a first half penalty to labour to a narrow 1-0 win.
It was no mean feat considering that Namibia are currently above Zimbabwe on the Fifa rankings on position 109 while the Warriors are 124th.
It is also interesting to note that Namibia have been to the last two Afcon finals.
Zimbabwe are close to qualification, but there is always an uneasiness whenever the Warriors are involved because of their rich history of being so near yet so far.
One thing for sure is that Nees has managed to galvanise a team which has proven to be difficult to score against.
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In their four matches so far, the Warriors have only conceded one goal, which came in stoppage time against Namibia on Monday night.
It was the first goal conceded in this qualification campaign, coming after more than 360 minutes of football, in a group which also includes Kenya and Cameroon.
A clean sheet is definitely what the team needs against Kenya next month.
With Namibia out of the competition, Kenya are the only team that can throw spanners in Zimbabwe's works, but they need to be perfect against Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Ahead of next month's final two qualifiers, Zifa needs to leave no stone unturned to reach the Holy Grail.
One is the biggest decisions will be the choice for the home ground.
What this campaign has taught us is that Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the best alternative home for Zimbabwe.
This is in view of the support from fans the team enjoyed at that stadium on Monday.
The experiments of playing home games in Rwanda or Uganda should never be considered again, especially at this stage of the competition.
Zifa should never be tempted to play both matches in Cameroon to save costs since the Warriors will play the west African giants two days later.
This is not the time to worry about saving costs but everything should be about crossing the line to qualify for Afcon.
At club level, Harare giants Dynamos made the mistake of prioritising cutting costs by playing two matches against a Botswana side in Botswana.
In the end, it cost them the chance to qualify for the group stages of the CAF Confed Cup and ultimately the money.
All the focus should now be on how to avoid defeat against Kenya and get the job done with a game to spare so that other fringe players will get a chance to play in Cameroon.
Players will also need to be incentivised ahead of this Kenya tie.
If need be, the winning bonuses must doubled to get the best out of our players.
We are so near and we should be able to qualify for our sixth Afcon finals.
