The Brave Warriors of Namibia might not be a household name in African football, but they hold the key as to what the future of Zimbabwe Warriors coach Michael Nees would be like after October 15.
Nees and his team face the Brave Warriors in back-to-back Afcon 2025 matches on October 10 and 15 and defeat for the Warriors in any of the two games would see question marks raised as to whether the German national was the right choice for the Zimbabwean team.
Nees was the top student for the Warriors job in a test conducted by the Zifa Normalisation Committee ahead of fellow countrymen Winfred Schaeffer, and Antoine Hey, as well as Gerard Nus of Spain and Marcio Maximo Barcelos of Brazil.
However, part of the Zimbabwe football public never wanted any of the five coaches, preferring instead former Highlanders coach Baltermar Brito who had driven the Warriors in their drawn 2026 World Cup matches against Rwanda and South Africa.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Nees' test case has come a bit too early as the games against a winless Namibia will be used as a barometer to judge his ability to handle a team like the Warriors.
The other teams in the group Cameroon and Kenya have beaten the Brave Warriors and it is the Warriors' turn to do so and failure to fulfill that mission will surely see the Zimbabwean football public lose faith in their man.
In fact, Zimbabweans regard Namibia so lowly and a slip up by Nees' team will have far reaching repercussions on the relationship between the coach and the Zimbabwe football loving public.
His two-draws against Rwanda and Cameroon won him some admirers but the coach should be warned that those admirers will surely desert him should he not pick up at least four points from the two matches against Namibia
In fact - to be on the safe side - Zimbabwe needs all the six points on offer from Namibia because chances are that Cameroon and Kenya will cancel each other giving the Warriors the chance to close the gap should they collect maximum points themselves.
More importantly, is the fact that Cameroon and Kenya are likely to beat Namibia for the second time and the Warriors' need the six points from the Brave Warriors to keep themselves in the race for Morocco 2025.
At the moment, Cameroon and Kenya are joint top of the table with four points while Zimbabwe are third on two points with Namibia bottom of the table with no point at all.
The Namibians will travel away to play Kenya but sadly, have lost their home advantage over Cameroon as they -just like Zimbabwe - do not have a stadium and are playing their home matches in foreign lands.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe will host Kenya and possibly in South Africa before travelling to Cameroon to face the Indomitable Lions.
Nees is well aware of the backlash that lies ahead should he lose to Namibia and had been trying to persuade former captain Knowledge Musona to return to the international fold.
He had also been trying to convince China based Nyasha Mushekwi to consider donning the Warriors jersey again after watching his strikers fire blanks against Kenya and Cameroon.
Although he has not been successful in his mission, he however, has managed to call into camp a strong Warriors team which Zimbabweans are satisfied with.
What now remains is for him to be spot on in his positional set up and team tactics against a Brave Warriors side that everyone else has beaten and is likely to beat again.
Nees, however, should be warned that he will lose all the respect accorded to him should his team lose to Namibia.
What he should do is to avoid being put in the same class with Zdravko Logarusic.
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