Former Warriors midfielder, Alois Bunjira, has said he is devastated following Zimbabwe’s 2-1 loss to Malawi in an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals this Friday in Cameroon.
Zimbabwe looked set to win the match when Ishmael Wadi headed home Onesmo Bhasera to give the Warriors a short-lived lead.
Malawi equalised almost immediately and scored again in the second half to secure the crucial three points.
Pindula News spoke to Bunjira, a ZIFA presidential aspirant, after the match to get his comment on the match. Bunjira could not hide his frustration over the result. He told this reporter:
We lost and I’m devastated. If we can’t beat teams like Malawi, then we don’t deserve to progress to the next phase. We are where we deserve to be, that is going back home.
Zimbabwe has never been in an easy group than this one but this loss shows that we have a huge problem. Football in Zimbabwe needs a fresh start, I mean everything to do with football.
Asked what went wrong tonight, the former Dynamos and Caps United midfielder said a number of things were at stake. He added:
I don’t know, maybe we don’t have the same school of thought as the technical team. I believe team selection is one of the things we got wrong, maybe I am biased because of the way I played back in the day.
We needed (Kuda) Mahachi more than any other player who was available today. We needed a Khama Billiat-type of a player who would make defenders run thereby removing pressure from our strikers.
His remarks resonate with those of Benjani Mwaruwari who is working as an analyst for the AFCON tournament with leading South African sports television channel SuperSport TV.
The former Manchester City player, who was supposed to be in the Warriors team but missed out after contracting COVID-19, said a playmaker was needed.
He singled out Ngezi Platinum Stars player, Denver Mukamba as one player that could have given Zimbabwe better wins.
More: Pindula News
Alois is right,these guys had everything they needed to be Senegal and Malawi but just failed. They approached the game too casual and never respected their opponents. There was no need to change the defence strategy at the back which proved water tight against senegal and make a few positive adjustments from mifield onwards. Musona is no longer effective in this squard its high time he retires and give young boys a chance. When we got into second half mahachi ,prince, muskwe,jemura was supposed to have been on the pitch but cautiously defending their territory. The selection of players was very poor from my point of view.
There is that white coach peagesel( German coach) who took us to Chan under Gvt to Gvt agreement, we need him as a fulltime coach. Lets broaden the net for selecting players,those on injury and those rejected like diven lunga,ex motor action capatain.
Zifa needs to be beefed up with patroitic,soccar minded individuals for us to have a good league,junior policy,scouts identifying talent accross the globe and lets have a policy that avoid southAfrica for players under 22years so that we gaurantee our self of better players playimg abroad.
Team selection is the main problem in Zimbabwe. I now understand a foreign coach will be best because he will choose players on merit but not because he plays for platinum fc. How can you select Bhasera over Devine Lunga. Musona is a gun man not play maker. What was the purpose ok keeping Kadewere 90 minutes and he did not even deserve 45.
I blame Fifa for our bad showing. They should have banned us
Not every Warrior is a champion
A lot of warriors go to the battlefield to die