Zimbabweans finally accepted that their 2026 World Cup dream was over after their beloved Warriors surrendered their fight for a place at the global gathering with a home draw against Benin.
Zimbabweans had refused to accept that their team was down and out, but the little smoke that was left of that World Cup journey was extinguished with that 2-2 stalemate with the West Africans.
Although there are still 15 points and five games remaining, to believe that the Warriors will catch up with the leading pack in the group would be expecting too much of Michael Nees' team.
The leading team, South Africa are on 10 points while the Warriors remain rooted at the bottom of the table with only three points from five matches following the stalemates with Rwanda, Nigeria, and lately Benin.
Although losses to Lesotho and South Africa had made the situation worse, it is the latest result against the underated West Africans, which has made the situation unbearable.
However, hard talking Warriors follower Adomso Mukwasi believes the Warriors' World Cup dream went into smoke long back on June 7, 2024, when the Warriors lost 2-0 to little Lesotho.
"We have been lying to ourselves that we still had a chance, there was none. That chance went when we were eaten by Lesotho, the weakest team in the group," argues Mukwasi.
With criticism high that the team is being selected on history and past glory and not on current form, sceptics argue that the worst is still to come in the remaining matches.
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Some even argue that there is no longer any need to call into camp the likes of Khama Billiat and Knowledge Musona for they have played their part and now was the time for fresh inspiration.
What puts Nees at the crossroads is that he is the one who persuaded Billiat and Musona to come out of international retirement and feels it is cruel to leave them out.
There is no doubt that Khama still has those deft touches, but age has cost him both speed and mobility. Against Benin, it would have been worthwhile to field him for 45 minutes and not for longer as Nees did.
The decision to do that has thrown into question the judgment of the whole technical crew who kept fresh players on the bench while allowing Billiat to roam around the field for nothing.
The coach, however, insists that Billiat and goalkeeper Washington Arubi will always be among the first players on his list because they played a huge part in the Warriors qualification for Afcon 2025.
The coach could simply be implying that even when off-form or injured Arubi and Billiat will still find themselves in the Warriors set up and barring injury are safely on their way to the Afcon 2025 finals.
Some find Nees line of reasoning offensive contending that national team places should be on merit arguing that Nees is taking Zimbabwean football backwards instead of forward.
Surely, after the game against Nigeria, we would love to see more and more youngsters being thrown into the fray as we build up for the pressures of facing Angola, Egypt, and South Africa, at Afcon 2025.
The is no question that age has caught up with a number of the players in the current Warriors set up and they might not be able to meet the demands of the speed at Africa's biggest football competition.
Sadly, though, our coach does not seem to have a clue as to the sort of players he requires as he is experimenting too much with new faces - game after game - at a time we expected him to have a regular team in place.
Under Michael Nees, we might have qualified easily for Afcon 2025 but the road we are traveling does not promise milk and honey but a pot of boiled kapenta.
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