The Sunday Mail
DOWN TO SERIOUS BUSINESS . . . Warriors players, Teenage Hadebe of Highlanders (left) and Chicken Inn’s Devine Lunga, go through a drill under the watchful eye of fitness trainer Majaha Ndlovu during a training session at Rufaro Stadium on Friday. — Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda
Ordinarily, Warriors coach Kallisto Pasuwa is the epitome of cool, calm and always collected even in the face of adversity.
However, as Zimbabwe prepares to begin their bid for a third consecutive dance at CHAN, with a date against lightweights Comoros at Rufaro this afternoon, the all-conquering coach appears like a man ready to snap.
It is this face of the 44-year-old that his charges and blundering zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, got glimpses of during preparations for today’s tie.
Mashingaidze strayed into a Warriors training session on Thursday, in his nervy blue business suit, for a “chat” with Pasuwa and was reportedly a recipient of the coach’s no nonsense mood.
“The coach is in no nonsense mood. He is of the view that people are beginning to take things for granted and spent the better part of the week telling everybody that this team is yet to achieve anything thus should not take the eye off the ball,” said a source close to the team.
“Mashingaidze also received his bit of Pasuwa’s bad side and was told off when he gate-crashed training on Thursday to discuss players’ bonuses and outstanding allowances,” added the source.
Pasuwa could not be drawn into discussing his interaction with Mashingaidze, saying it was but a private discussion.
His charges also received a similar stern treatment soon after the conclusion of Friday morning’s workout at Rufaro.
“I think I gave you all the time to settle your money issues with the responsible authorities and now it is time for serious business.
“Once we are on that field, all those off field issues cease to matter because we are judged with our performance. Anyone who is afraid of the game or is not physically ready for Sunday’s (today) battle should say so now,” Pasuwa could be heard bellowing at his charges.
Again, efforts to get clarification from the marauding gaffer were met with resistance as he immediately switched back to his calm and collected face preferring instead to speak on today’s tie. Throughout the interview, his uneasiness was clearly visible as he warned against complacency when Zimbabwe walks onto the pitch to take on their unfancied opponents.
The senior men side’s 2-1 win in Malawi last week in a Group L afcon qualifier, coupled with the success that has followed Pasuwa’s men at Under-23 level, has seen a sense of invincibility crippling into the team, a situation the record-breaking coach does not see as ideal.
“That’s one team (Comoros) I’m very afraid of. Everybody is saying we are going to win since we have been grinding results without even training. But we have to pull our act together for us to win. Remember there is this team (Swaziland) which came here and forced us into a draw with everybody saying it will be a big and easy win for us so we really need to psyche up the boys to get a positive result,” said Pasuwa.
Pasuwa said in as much as the Warriors will go out in search of a win, they will also need to do their part in defence to avoid an upset.
“We need to be very careful, this is international football, remember we haven’t been training. It demands that we be very compact and adequately deal with situations where we can lose possession in attack and avoid leaving too much space at the back,” said Pasuwa.
With the need to defend well uppermost in Pasuwa’s game plan, the inclusion of Gunners defender Justice Jangano from the Northern Region division One raised a few eyebrows but the coach explained that he has the best man for the job.
“It’s not like I saw him playing division one football. I also saw him playing for Caps United against Dynamos in those two pre-season matches and he did very well. His aerial tussle was good.
“Everything he did, he did it very well, he is one player who, if we train him well can do exceptionally well, but he will need to get himself a top flight club to continue improving his game,” said Pasuwa.
While the hosts will lose limb in search of a win, the visitors are not losing sleep over results but rather feel “honoured to play against such a great football nation like Zimbabwe.”
“Zimbabwe is a strong team, remember they beat Malawi last week in an afcon qualifier,” said coach Abderemane Chamite, who spoke through an interpreter — head of delegation Said Ali.
“We came here to play our best football, defend and also attack when we have the ball. But we are not very much obsessed with the result, playing a great football nation like Zimbabwe is an honour and great experience for us,” said Chamite.
