The Sunday Mail
Ian “Dibango” Gorowa has failed.
He should ungraciously walk away from the Warriors job like he hinted to his players soon after last weekend’s devastating draw with Tanzania before making a U-turn 24 hours later.
If he continues to sing the “Handiende” song, like he is doing now, he should be fired.
Granted, there are several mitigatory factors that can be waved in his defence following last weekend’s horrific exit from the Morocco 2015 Africa Cup of Nations journey.
The strike on the eve of the 2-2 draw with the Taifa Stars can be argued to have affected the national team’s focus.
Zifa’s failure to flex their muscle and order the postponement of Week 9 of the Castle Premier Soccer League and ensure that Gorowa gets more time with the boys in camp can also form part of the defence outline.
The national association’s failure to organise international friendly matches, which left the Warriors with little option but to spar with local sides such as Dynamos, also deserves mention.
However, all this lipstick on an ugly frog should not blinker the nation from the cold fact that the man charged with taking Zimbabwe to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations has failed, dismally.
Gorowa, too, needs to admit as much before waxing lyrical about how the country is in a crisis and how the foreign-based players let him and the nation down last Sunday.
He accepted the chance to lead the Warriors fully aware of the devil he was dealing with in Zifa.
He knew Zifa and buffoonery administration are like Siamese twins but still went ahead to accept the Warriors job and the Morocco mission.
Gorowa trusted his ability to work under such an environment, Zimbabwe trusted him too.
The nation celebrated when news broke that the coach had been offered a new contract that will see him getting to 2015 as the Warriors mentor.
Gorowa had given us so much reason to believe when he led a band of locally-based Warriors to the semi-finals of the African Nations Championships in South Africa at the beginning of the year.
If the temperamental gaffer could achieve that much success with such limited resources while working with such a badly run Zifa then surely Morocco 2015 would be a possibility, the nation mused at the time.
However, all that confidence vanished last Sunday when the Warriors were booted out of the qualifiers, at the preliminary round, by a workaholic Tanzania at the National Sports Stadium.
It was painful.
It still is.
It will continue to be for a long time.
The horror events of last Sunday came against the backdrop of Gorowa having vowed that the Warriors would qualify for the next round despite falling 0-1 away to Tanzania in the first leg.
Speaking after the first leg fall, Gorowa said: “We just got off to a very bad start, got punished, but I think we did well to come back and take control of the game, but we didn’t get a goal.
“But I will say it now boldly here that we will go through to the next round. I think we are capable of doing much better than we did today.”
Indeed the Warriors fared better than they did away to the Taifa Stars.
They drew 2-all with the side that beat them 0-1 in Dar es Salaam.
However, that was not enough.
Someone has to pay the price for such failure.
That someone is Gorowa.
One cannot expect Cuthbert Dube and his board to call it a day, just over two months after their re-election, in response to the Warriors’ disastrous show just to save the coach’s job.
One would, however, expect them to fire Gorowa.
A deep introspection is needed and tough decisions will have to be made.
One of those decisions, one would believe, is to have a new national team coach whose mission is to rebuild the Warriors.
Gorowa last week told the media that if he had his way he “would disband the national team and start afresh probably working with the Under-23 and forget about the senior team for a while.”
If the majority of football fans had their way, Gorowa would not be the national team coach anymore.
He would have been jettisoned the minute the referee blew for full time last Sunday.
It’s difficult to comprehend how a coach, who is rarely at home as he attends to his business interests in South Africa, can lead local football’s rebuilding exercise.
Gorowa hinted at walking away when he addressed his players back at the team’s lodge, but made a U-turn and began to sing the “Handiende”, I am a patriot song.
Maybe Gorowa is a patriot.
Maybe he would have done better with a better-run Zifa.
Maybe he would have done better had he spent much time following the local game rather than relying on Kallisto Pasuwa’s briefings.
Maybe . . .
It doesn’t matter now.
Ian “Dibango” Gorowa has failed to execute the mandate he was given.
Zimbabwe will not be at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
And there is no reason for Gorowa to continue as the national team coach regardless of how fond Dube is of the former Black Rhinos and Dynamos forward.
Coaches who fail walk away, if they have honour, or are fired.
That is football. A coach is as good as his last game.
A fresh start is needed and there is nothing fresh about Gorowa as the national team coach.
