THERE is every reason for our continued celebrations after the Warriors beat the Brave Warriors of Namibia 1-0, but we should not forget that the journey still has some rough patches we have to overcome.
Yes, the Warriors gave us something to cheer about on that balmy Thursday afternoon, but we need another set of three points off the Brave Warriors to give ourselves some breathing space.
Usually, a team with nine points qualifies for the finals — in second place — and another three points from Namibia would push the Warriors to eight points, leaving Zimbabwe requiring only a draw in both the home match against Kenya and the one away to Cameroon.
Chances are high that Namibia will lose to both Cameroon and Kenya in their other remaining matches and our Warriors cannot afford to drop points against the weakest team in Group J.
After all, the Namibians have won only nine of their past 28 matches and most of those wins have come against lightweights like Sao Tome, Lesotho, and twice against Mozambique.
So, dropping points against Namibia will give our challengers an advantage and we do not want to depend on results of other teams for us to qualify, but our own performance and our own results.
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Some might not agree, but the fact remains that the Namibians — even in their weakness — were far much the better side than our Warriors on that Thursday and our goalkeeper Washington Arubi did save the day.
Surely, we love our Warriors and that they won, but we do not expect a team with Afcon 2025 and World Cup 2026 ambitions to play the way they did, even failing to string one or two passes together.
On that day, we did not create as many chances as we would have wanted because our midfield of Marvelous Nakamba, Marshall Munetsi, and Andy Rinomhota, was not as mobile as we would have wanted it to be.
On that premise, it is now up to coach Michael Nees to decide whether this is the midfield combination he wants to trust for the battles that lie ahead in both Afcon 2025 and World Cup 2026.
There are also matches against Benin, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa, coming in 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, which the same Warriors will be required to take care off.
Perhaps, there is a mitigating factor that Nakamba was just coming from a long injury lay off and needs time to get used to playing alongside Munetsi and Rinomhota in addition to adjusting to Nees' new system of play.
Perhaps, Nees might also want to say Zimbabwe missed its best strikers Tino Kadewere and Tawanda Chirewa, which lost them the cutting edge in the few scoring opportunities that came their way.
The truth, however, is that Nees was asked to pick the best 23 players which he did and those players were a big disappointment even in their victory, which reflects badly on him.
Nees — with his history —should know that a national team should have identity. It should be known for its style of play, and should also be remembered in the manner it wins matches and not one that grinds results, but with no style or flair to talk off.
That is what the Warriors are like at the moment as we saw in the game against the Namibians where we spent almost 65% of the match defending, and after playing Cameroon and Kenya, we still do not have a style of our own.
In fact, the Brave Warriors should count themselves unlucky for not coming out with at least a draw and even the most patriotic Zimbabwean football fan would agree to that.
However, by Tuesday, the Warriors will have had enough time together and we expect a better show from them than the rubbish we saw the last time around.
Football is not only about results but also entertainment like what the Dream Team gave to Zimbabweans.
*For your views, comments, and suggestions, mkariati@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 071 0774 596.