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minutes at the 11 November stadium in Luanda and as they have often done in recent years, they crucially failed to find a response to those early goals in the remaining 84 minutes of their biggest 2013 African Cup of Nations qualification battle against Angola on Sunday.
Coach Rahman Gumbo, who will naturally shoulder the blame for the defeat as the head of the technical team will — probably on reflection — acknowledge that after taking a 3-1 first leg lead at Rufaro on September 9, it is the Palancas Negras who seem to have done more home work and improved on their weaknesses, over the last month, and came to Luanda a tactically better outfit.
Not that the hosts, playing before an estimated 40 000 fans, did anything extraordinary on the pitch or are technically superior but they had an objective and they simply capatalised on an out-of-sorts Warriors whose game plan might have vanished between their team hotel and the stadium.
The Warriors, with their tails between their legs, slipped back into the country yesterday morning and where they would have been expecting a vociferous reception they found a very quiet Harare International Airport that only had the airport staff to receive them as they made their way back.
Gumbo and his assistants, David “Yogi’’ Mandigora and Peter Ndlovu, are likely to face the local media today but the former FC Platinum coach simply lost the battle of tactics against his Angolan counterpart Gustavo Perrin.
This is because Perrin came to Rufaro on September 9, saw his team have a terrible first half in which they conceded three quick goals including an own goal by midfielder Mateus.
But the Uruguayan coach got his cards right in the second period and secured a vital away goal.
Crucially, when the two teams arrived at the battlefield on Sunday, it was Perrin who had a clear game plan for a blitzkrieg while the Warriors, despite having the advantage, simply failed to employ gritty players with the capacity to neutralise the threat that the likes of Miguel, Dede, Djalma, Manucho and Pirolito posed.
That the Angolan goals came early still gave the Warriors ample time to react and hit back at least one goal that would have restored their advantage.
But after conceding the first goal in the third minute, the Warriors just could not quickly regroup and before they knew it the Palancas Negras, dangerous from set pieces and the flanks all afternoon in Luanda, had struck again through another free Manucho header, to turn the game on its head.
Goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda was a ball of nerves in those important first 15 minutes, when his confidence and lack of experience let him down, but to his credit he later regained his composure and made some crucial saves when left exposed against the Angolans.
But, as they say, the damage had been done.
Despite having at least five offensive-minded players, the Warriors’ reaction on the offensive was not strong enough in a match in which the visitors had one shot on target in the first half and a few scrambled opportunities to barely trouble Angolan goalkeeper Lama.
While Perrin revealed that he had made some changes to “correct the mistakes we made in Harare,’’ the Warriors somehow seemed to have lost their way and by enlarging their squad to 31, a number they still had in camp, two days before the big battle, they worsened their challenges.
Six of the 31 players were goalkeepers, a clear sign that there were huge doubts over Sibanda’s pedigree to be the first choice in the absence of injured skipper Tapuwa Kapini.
Kapini was already injured when he bravely turned out for his Warriors in the first leg before aggravating the injury in that game and subsequently undergoing surgery days later.
But for nearly a month the Warriors technical department could not identify their first choice goalkeeper because if they had settled for Sibanda, there should have been a concerted effort to work on his game, especially the psychological part.
On reflection, the coaches will realise there would have been no need to assemble a large pool that included the likes of Maxwell Nyamupangedengu, George Chigova, Marlon Jani and the recalled pair of Swaziland-based Ephraim Mazarura and Energy Murambadoro, who is clubless in South Africa.
In the end, the coaches settled for Bosso goalkeeper Sibanda and Motor Action’s Jani while Murambadoro travelled to Luanda on a stand-by basis while Mazarura, Nyamupangedengu and Chigova never made the trip.
Zifa board member competitions Benedict Moyo, the point man when it comes to technical matters in the association’s management, while apologising to the nation, said he was still struggling to find answers on what went wrong for the Warriors in their disastrous start.
Moyo, who is also the board member development, said he was also still searching for answers on why the Warriors for the second time in back to back meetings with Angola seemed play in fits and starts.
“I think basically we lost in the first six minutes because in any match that you play the first 15 to 20 minutes are critical so is that last 15 to 20 minutes.
“We should have kept it tight at the back especially on the flanks and we didn’t do enough to track Manucho yet it is known that technically gifted players like Khama Billiat and Manucho should not be allowed to get to the ball first,’’ Moyo said.
Moyo also noted that although the Warriors upped their game after going down to the early setback they did not do much to peg back the hosts.
“After conceding two early goals we should not have hung a little bit at the back, we should have thrown caution to the wind and we should have been more adventurous . . . there was a lot of loose marking and the moment Oscar Machapa was injured at training we knew we had a problem because he had played very well in the first leg.
“Maybe we wanted to play a game that was too normal but you cannot blame the match officials for the two goals but obviously after Angola had scored their goals he played a part in frustrating us with some decisions on fouls and offside decisions.
“We had warned these youngsters but they still fell for it and got booked, maybe it is because of inexperience,’’ Moyo said.
Although Moyo felt the defence had not been tight enough, credit must go to captain of the day Esrom Nyandoro for yet another brave show albeit on a losing cause.
Questions will, however be inevitably be asked too why a gritty player Lincoln Zvasiya was not included to buttress the defence once he was deemed good enough to make the final 18.
Ironically the European-based pair of wingbacks of Onismor Bhasera and Noel Kaseke have not played to the lofty standards and the high profiles they created.