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THE Warriors’ latest quest for a maiden appearance at the World Cup finals got off to a poor start after they failed to take all three points in their opening Group G qualifier at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.

While others will welcome this as a point gained for this weakened Warriors side missing a number of their regulars, the reality remains that these were two big points dropped.

We were up against an experimental Bafana Bafana side, probably the weakest South African team sent into a World Cup qualifier, and we should have taken full advantage by winning this match.

It’s not always when Bafana Bafana field players who were picked on the basis of their performance, at the COSAFA Cup, a tournament which the South Africans have, until now, been treating with disdain.

Even without our UK-based players, who were barred from coming home to play in these qualifiers as part of Britain’s Covid-19 protocols, we should still have been strong enough to beat this Bafana Bafana side.

That we didn’t do so in a game in that we failed to impose ourselves in a performance that was as disjointed as it was disappointing, is all down to our shortcomings, rather than the strengths of our opponents.

Ahead of yesterday’s match, all the focus was on our defence, which we felt had been hard-hit by the withdrawal of some of its key players, including first-choice centre back, Teenage Hadebe.

The gangly defender, who has been ever present in our Warriors since he broke into the first team, was not released by his Major League Soccer side, Houston Dynamo, to fly home for this qualifier.

The American team, just like their British counterparts, decided to hold on to Hadebe, and field him in their league matches which, somehow, have been fixtured to be played during a window set aside for international matches.

Coach Zdravko Logarusic was forced to push Onismor Bhasera, whose career has been built playing on the wide spaces of the channels, into central defence, where he partnered Alec Mudimu.

Any fears that our defence would be our Achilles Heel were quickly quashed by a combination of a solid partnership, from those who were thrown into the fray yesterday, and limited threat from this experimental Bafana Bafana side.

Ironically, our attack, which was not largely affected by the absence of our regular players, turned into our weakest link as we once again struggled to find the co-ordination required to unlock our opponents.

South African goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams, came here expecting he would have a busy day, but he was largely untested throughout the match as we failed to find the combination needed to threaten his goal.

Within the first 30 minutes it had become very clear that we were missing a creative force, someone to open the Bafana Bafana defence, with one pass through their rearguard and create opportunities for our forwards.

Throughout the first half, Tino Kadewere appeared an isolated and frustrated figure, with most of our play not involving him, and one would have expected that this would be addressed by the coach.

However, when we came back for the second half, we kept the same structure, giving the Bafana Bafana defence the comfort they never expected, as we struggled to put them under pressure.

Loga will probably argue that his game plan was affected by the absence of many of his first-choice players but he had most of his offensive players.

And, that we didn’t carry our usual threat, might be down to the way the coach has been setting up his team.

It should worry him, and his employers at ZIFA, that we haven’t won a match at home, since the Croat took over as our national coach.

We drew 2-2 against Algeria in a 2021 AFCON qualifier after having been forced to come from two goals down,at the giant stadium.

We were then beaten 0-2 by Zambia in another 2021 AFCON qualifier, even though Loga decided to defend that result by saying he chose not to take a gamble by throwing some of his first-choice players who were sitting on yellow cards.

Fielding them in that match, the coach argued, would have been suicidal given another caution would have meant they would miss our opening match at the 2021 Nations Cup finals in Cameroon next January.

But the fact that Khama Billiat, who has been one of our regular suppliers of goals, is yet to score since Loga took over is very worrying for us and could suggest he isn’t being played where he used to thrive, on national duty.

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that Billiat had scored two goals in a 2021 AFCON qualifier against Zambia in Lusaka, the last game the Warriors played before Loga came in as our coach.

Our skipper Knowledge Musona has also been the other regular supplier of our goals but, since Loga took over, he has scored only once from a free-kick, against Algeria.

The other thing, which really concerned us yesterday, was the failure by those who were thrown into the fray as substitutes to make any meaningful impact.

Something just doesn’t look right and any serious team, which wants to qualify for the World Cup, knows it should win at home and try, by all means, to pick a point, away from home.

We have started badly, there is no doubt about that, and those who don’t believe in Loga will remind us that this was the 13th game, under the Croat, and we have only won once.

It’s a miserable record.