The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
BLACK Rhinos Queens’ coach Kudakwahe Matuwi believes the introduction of the CAF Women’s Champions League will raise the standard of women club football on the continent.
He also praised the gallant effort of his charges, who finished runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns in the COSAFA edition of the Champions League qualifiers.
The unheralded gaffer, however, refuses to take all credit for the performance.
“I believe in teamwork. I am someone who believes that we win together and lose together. What we have achieved is a result of teamwork,” he said. Matuwi started his coaching career in 2011 as an assistant to the late Gift “Guava” Kamuriwo at former Division Two side 7 Flames FC.
He later become head coach of the club before switching to women’s football in 2015 as head of development for the army side.
He was subsequently given the role of head coach for the senior team in 2019.
“It has been an interesting six-year journey.
“I joined Black Rhinos Queens as the head of development, before I was appointed head coach in 2019.”
After conquering the domestic league, his team were within 90 minutes of completing a fairy tale at the COSAFA tournament that would have also seen him becoming the first coach to lead a women’s side to a club continental tournament.
But Mamelodi Sundowns handed them a 3-0 defeat that ended their dream.
Although a runners-up spot cannot be celebrated in much the same way as winning the competition, for Black Rhinos Queens, getting to the final was a huge success given where they were coming from.
They had been inactive for almost two years following the indefinite suspension on sport by Government to curb the spread of Covid-19.
With limited time to prepare for the tournament, not many thought the Zimbabwean champions would stand a chance.
But for Matuwi and his charges, the belief that nothing is impossible drove the army side to take on the challenge. “When we went to the tournament, our target was to progress past the group stages, but after we had sealed a place in the quarter-finals, we had this belief that nothing is impossible and it was at this time that our target changed,” he said.
The introduction of CAF Women’s Champions League, Matuwi added, could help teams have something to aim for.
“We have been winning the league for a long time but there was nothing to show for it, not even a trophy or a medal, but the coming in of the Champions League will act as a motivating factor not for us as Black Rhinos, but for the league as a whole.”
