Inside Sport: Let’s give Brito the benefit of doubt

By Michael Kariati | Dec. 24, 2023

For a start, we need to give Baltermar Brito, the benefit of the doubt and allow him to finish a campaign he started.

BALTERMAR Brito might not have been the best coach we would have wanted for our Warriors, but we should give him the benefit of the doubt to see us through our 2026 World Cup journey.

He might have failed to pick up the much needed maximum six points which looked so easy to get against Rwanda and Nigeria but there are mitigating factors which we should also consider.

This was the first time that Brito was meeting with all the Zimbabwean players and the team went into the two games without any warm up matches to talk about.

More importantly was the fact that some of the players -Jordan Zemura, for example- did not train with the team for the Rwanda match which he missed after arriving late for the game.

Not forgetting that Tivonge Rushesha did not take part in both games due to passport problems, which should have been sorted long back before he joined camp.

Surely, enough chances were created especially in the match against the Super Eagles and we cannot fault the coach for the opportunities, which were wasted

In fact, we should not point fingers at Brito for the points dropped against Nigeria because he is not the one -in the first place-who forced the home match to be played in a foreign land.

The environment in Rwanda could have had a bearing on the Warriors and had this match been played at the National Sports Stadium surely the Super Eagles could have fallen.

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In the close to the 10 days that the Warriors were in Rwanda, Brito formed a bond with the players and it would be cruel to break that bond when bigger challenges face the Zimbabwean team.

On that premise, it is advisable for the Zifa normalisation committee to go ahead and apply for Brito’s work permit and probably make him sign a contract that takes him up to the end of the 2026 World Cup campaign even though the committee’s mandate ends on June 31.

Surely, we cannot continue with this habit or system of changing a national team coach after every game, a system that has proved disastrous in the past.

In the 2022 World Cup and Afcon campaigns, the Warriors started off with Joey Antipas, then came Zdravko Logarusic before Norman Mapeza took over the reins.

Although we cannot go back to ask why Antipas was removed from his post, it would be in the best interest of the Warriors and Zimbabwe at large to continue and finish off with the coach who started off the campaign - in this case Brito.

The truth is that bringing in a new coach would mean starting all over again, something that would bring problems as the players try to adapt to another or new system of play.

The Warriors are now familiar with how their coach wants them to play and what remains is to improve on what they have shown so far especially when it comes to converting their chances.

This team showed a lot of promise and what is required is to keep it together with its coach and give it two or so friendly matches to fine tune itself.

Those matches should not be with the likes of Botswana or Eswatini, but we should go for teams with names, teams such as Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, and the Ivory Coast.

Although we dropped four very important points against Rwanda and Nigeria, the truth is that this is a group we can finish on top as long as we do the right things.

We still have four home matches against Benin, Lesotho, Rwanda and South Africa and we should strive to collect maximum points at all costs.

This means we need to use the National Sports Stadium for those matches and the authorities should move fast in terms of stadia renovations to see to it that by April all is sorted out.

African football history has it on record that teams that convincingly win all their home matches usually qualify for major tournaments and we need to make full use of our home advantage.

Once again Sports minister, Kirsty Coventry is preaching that the stadium would be ready before June when World Cup qualifiers resume but we have heard that before and what we need is action.

We already know how much treasury is pouring into sport and part of that should be channeled towards the National Stadium which after all is also used for athletics and other national events.

The draw for the World Cup has never been fair to us like it has done this time around and now is the time for us to sit up and be noticed and with the right approach and attitude we can do it.

For a start, we need to give Baltermar Brito, the benefit of the doubt and allow him to finish a campaign he started.