EDITORIAL COMMENT: Come on Warriors, make our nation proud!

THE Zimbabwe Warriors plunge into one of their biggest international assignments tomorrow when they host the Flames of Malawi in a 2017 Nations Cup qualifier that could determine our quest for a place in Gabon next year. Depending on results in Swaziland, where Sihlangu host Guinea, the Warriors could celebrate the return to the Nations Cup finals for the first time since 2006, should they win — as we expect them to do — against Malawi tomorrow.

A victory, and failure by Guinea to win in Swaziland, will see the Warriors become the latest national team to book their place in Gabon although a victory by the West Africans would see the contest being taken to a final round of matches in September.

Just like the entire nation, we are fully behind our Warriors, our support for them is encrypted in our DNA and we can say it loud and clear, for everyone to hear, that we are a newspaper who will always support their cause.

In a nation like ours, where football is the number one sporting discipline, the Warriors play a very key role in shaping the mood of our people and in times like these, when we have our challenges as a nation including a severe cash squeeze, it’s incumbent upon our football ambassadors to cheer our spirits.

Estimates are that more than 50 000 fans will converge at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow, for this defining battle as the Warriors once again demonstrate their popularity as a super brand, and the onus is now on Callisto Pasuwa and his men to ensure that they don’t disappoint all those people who believe in them.

Tomorrow’s match is more than a football game; it is the coming together of our people to once again show their pride in our identity as Zimbabweans, using football to celebrate that which makes us unique as a people, the never-say-die spirit that has now become part of our identity around the world.

The big game comes just a few days after one of our football stars, Khama Billiat, cheered the spirits of millions of Zimbabweans by being voted the 2016 Footballer of the Season in South Africa, an acknowledgement by the South Africans that he is the best among those who are plying their trade in the continent’s richest top-flight football league.

Billiat was also voted the 2016 Players’ Player of the Season and the 2016 Midfielder of the Season in a landmark triumph for our diminutive forward who, at the age of just 25, could see big and richer European clubs knocking on his door for his services.

Every time they announced his name as winner at the end-of-season football awards gala in South Africa on Monday, they made sure they said he was from Zimbabwe and we derive a lot of pride that one of our sporting ambassadors wrote such a positive story for our nation with his exploits on the football field.

We are also proud that it took a Zimbabwean to finally end the South African footballers’ monopoly on these awards and, given that theirs is a league where you have players from all over the continent, including powerful football nations such as Nigeria and Ghana, and others from as far as Colombia, the emergence of one of our boys as the best of the lot down South has made us walk with a spring in our step.

Now, the challenge for Billiat, who was given a standing ovation by local fans at Rufaro on Tuesday, is for him to repay that support from his home supporters, which matters more than anything else, by helping the Warriors qualify for the 2016 Nations Cup finals.

Billiat is part of a group of players, dubbed the Golden Generation, who have emerged in this country whom we believe can power our country to a place at the next Nations Cup finals and give our fans something to cheer their spirits.

Knowledge Musona, who for the past few years has emerged as the leading light for our national football team, is part of that special group of players and he said this week that it is his mission to try and ensure that this country qualifies for the next Nations Cup finals.

Costa Nhamoinesu is coming from a very successful season in the Czech Republic where he was one of the outstanding players at his club, Sparta Prague, as they reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa Cup.

A no-nonsense man, who carries his heart on his sleeve, Nhamoinesu has emerged as one of the leaders of this generation and is a firm favourite with the fans who appreciate the shifts that he puts in for the cause of his country.

Our captain, Willard Katsande, was also crowned Player of the Season at South African glamour club, Kaizer Chiefs, in recognition of his brilliance, while emerging striker Evans Rusike also won a similar award at Maritzburg United.

We have the playing personnel to complete the mission and that we are undefeated in four matches in the Nations Cup qualifiers, shows that we have come of age and the challenge is now on our Warriors to deliver, instead of choke, now that the finishing line is within sight.

Malawi might be bottom of the group, but that is what makes them dangerous because they have no pressure; they are just here to play for their pride, and that is why we should not be complacent, but battle long and hard for our nation tomorrow.

We just can’t fail this time around.

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