DESPITE shambolic preparations that culminated in the Zimbabwe senior national team squad changed and chopped three times before the team left for the Cosafa Cup in South Africa, the Warriors scrapped through a narrow 1-0 win over Comoros in a match that was played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha, Durban yesterday afternoon. Few people expected the Warriors to launch a serious threat to Comoros in their opening match of the annual tournament given that the Warriors literally walked into the match without prior preparations such as friendly matches. In fact, the squad barely had meaningful training sessions to bond, gel and work on combinations and tactics.
The Warriors only needed a 54th-minute Michael Tapera well taken effort from inside to collect maximum points after dominating the match in both halves. Following a good exchange of passes, the Manica Diamonds striker got an inviting delivery from his left-footed club mate Farai Banda to make it count for the country’s flagship football side. It was a match in which Warriors hard running skipper Godkowns Murwira was voted Man of the Match.
In his post-match interview, Warriors head coach Jairos Tapera said: “I know South Africa is for us all. We have support all over South Africa, we are brothers. We were more organised, we moved the ball, and they were just giving us the opportunity to move the ball around.
In terms of positional play we were much better. When we went into the second half we realised that we .