The Mighty Warriors, though still struggling to beat continental giants like Nigeria, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea and qualify for major international tournament, have more often than not left a sweet taste in the mouths of many local soccer lovers..
Having made a steady rise over the years, the Mighty Warriors have been phenomenal since last year. They failed to make it to this year’s London Olympics, but their qualification to the 2011 All Africa Games, lifting of the 2011 Cosafa Cup and the 2011 Unity Cup, after victories that included a famous 3-0 win over bitter rivals South Africa, capped their resurgence last year.
All credit to Mavis Gumbo, who turned women’s soccer from a point where it lacked proper structure when she took over the reins, to one of the most feared regional powerhouses.
When the Cuthbert Dube-led men’s version of the game took a nosedive that saw it beg for money to send the Warriors for what later became a disastrous Afcon qualifier return leg in Angola and totally fail to send the Under-20s and Under-17s to African Championship qualifiers, Gumbo made it happen for the girls.
The Mighty Warriors achieved what they did after they were sent to a training camp in Germany, which boosted their morale and psyched them up for the challenges ahead.
On the other hand, Dube disbanded the senior men’s national team and promised to develop a new generation from the juniors. But failure to send them to any continental competitions, including the Zone VI games in Zambia, showed that this was just an empty promise.
Gumbo has, on the other hand, made sure that she lives what her male counterpart preaches by seeing the development of young girls into formidable senior national team players.
The same Zone VI games shunned by Dube have given the Mighty Warriors a developmental platform. At least seven members of the team that won gold at the 2010 finals in Swaziland were promoted into the team that made lightweight of the local girls’ former nemesis.
They lost 0-5 to South Africa this year, but the fact that, as defending champions, Langton Giwa’s team reached a second successive final of the Zone VI games this year can also give us added hope.
Our women’s soccer is still on the upward climb, just like northern neighbour Zambia, whose dominance of the men’s Under-20 Cosafa games culminated in their 2012 Afcon triumph.
From the squad, we can expect more players to be promoted into the Mighty Warriors fold, just like Rudo Neshamba, Emaculate Msipa, Rudo Machingura and Rutendo Makore. The Warriors’ future looks gloomy, but in the Mighty Warriors, we have hope.
Post published in: Football