Petros Kausiyo in WINDHOEK, Namibia
ZIMBABWE’S Warriors might have bowed out of the COSAFA Castle Cup at the preliminary round stage, but the team has won plaudits from the regional body’s leadership with Callisto Pasuwa and his men being saluted for their qualification for the 2017 African Cup of Nations. The Warriors, using a bunch of home-grown talent, were for the second successive year eliminated at the preliminary group stage at the COSAFA Castle Cup in Windhoek, with Swaziland edging them for the top spot via a two-point advantage.

Swaziland eventually finished third following a 1-0 triumph over Democratic Republic of Congo while South Africa overcame Botswana 3-2 in the final for a record equalling fourth COSAFA Cup title.

But the COSAFA leadership believes Zimbabwe’s early exit from the tournament in Windhoek should not blight the bigger picture of the Warriors’ achievement, which is their qualification for the Nations Cup finals in Gabon in January next year.

COSAFA executive member John Muinjo paid glowing tribute to the Warriors for being “the pride of the region’’ in the Nations Cup qualification campaign and backed Zimbabwe to go all the way to the final in Gabon.

Muinjo said they were also particularly impressed by the fact that the coach who has taken the Warriors to only their third Nations Cup appearance — Pasuwa — was a product of the COSAFA Castle Cup having featured in the competition for several years as player and now as coach.

Pasuwa’s men are the only team from the Southern African region to have secured a berth at the continental football showcase and unlike on their previous two appearances in 2004 and 2006, the Warriors this time qualified for Gabon with a game to spare, claiming the Group L ticket ahead of Swaziland, Guinea and Malawi.

“I am very proud of Zimbabwe and I know they will represent us well. They have a coach who came through the COSAFA ranks and people should not be surprised if Zimbabwe go and win the AFCON in Gabon.

“It will not be by sheer luck, but because of the rich potential that the country has. I watched Zimbabwe’s AFCON qualifying match against Malawi at the National Sports Stadium and there was so much passion and that passion will drive the Warriors and football in the country.

“For all the hardships that the country has gone through and for all the challenges that ZIFA have gone through without resources they have qualified for four tournaments which is the Olympics, for the Women, the African Games, CHAN and now the AFCON.

“The mere fact that they could qualify as Southern Africa’s representatives shows that they could go out there and even bring the cup home and the players who can achieve that are there,’’ Muinjo said.

Former FIFA and CAF referee Muinjo also reckoned that the competition in the COSAFA Castle Cup was improving with each year and noted the increasing faith being placed in young talent by most teams.

“It is every participating association’s choice to decide which team they send to the COSAFA Castle Cup and I am happy that the standard of football in the region has gone up each year. The teams are now using more young players although most of those that brought entirely youngsters didn’t do quite well. Of course South Africa benefited from their Olympic team, but I am sure the objective of COSAFA has been achieved.

“Swaziland and Lesotho had teams that were well prepared, Seychelles, Madagascar, and Mauritius have shown a lot of improvement and it is not a surprise that Madagascar reached the quarter-finals last year.

“Although we have only one representative at the AFCON, it must not be forgotten that we had two teams at the CHAN tournament, Zambia and Zimbabwe ’’.

Muinjo was also happy with the organisation of the competition and the refereeing standards at the COSAFA tournament where Zimbabwe had two top referees — Norman Matemera and Salani Ncube — officiating.

“It was one of those tournaments that had all the ingredients of a well organised tournament and the presence of the Head of State (President Hage Gneigob) at almost all the matches showed the goodwill of the government to have this tournament a success.

“Governments should now move to assist associations in hosting more tournaments especially for the youth and women and I am happy that Namibia also successfully hosted the African Women’s championships in 2014.

“South Africa and Zimbabwe going to the Rio Games is also a sign that a lot of positive things are happening in the region.

“When you look at the refereeing we had the best referees from the region and those that are being developed and because of the high levels of officiating we had a thrilling tournament.

“The aspects of respect, tolerance and discipline are showing brightly in this region and we did not have complaints on refereeing. In fact, I would want to urge the referees bodies in the various countries to incorporate more referees from such organs like the police and army as they easily find it easy to enforce discipline on the pitch,’’ Muinjo said.

The COSAFA leadership, Muinjo also said would continue to recommend to national associations in the region that they take more steps “to strengthen their administrative structures and pave the way for sustained development of the game.

“We want our respective member associations to look at their administration and coaching and strengthen them. As we speak we also have the COSAFA Under-17 which will be in Mauritius next month and in December we will have the Under-20.

“It is a pity that with women we are still struggling a bit with getting a sponsor but we are looking to get one . . . COSAFA activities are based on development and it has shown that if you concentrate more on the youth you will bear fruits and hence the teams that we have invited like Ghana, Tanzania and now DRC have found it difficult to beat our teams.

“DRC brought their CHAN winning squad, but they could not beat both Botswana and Swaziland’’.

Although he hardly gets the kind of recognition his coaching exploits deserve on the home front, Pasuwa will no doubt walk tall with the knowledge that his efforts in developing the game and guiding the Warriors to the Promised Land are being widely acknowledged across the region.

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