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Congratulations to the senior national football team, the Warriors, for winning the 2017 Cosafa Castle Cup in style by dismantling Zambia 3-1 at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng near Rustenburg, South Africa, yesterday.

Classy goals by man of the tournament Knox Mutizwa, brilliant winger Talent Chawapiwa and Ocean Mushure wrote the Warriors into the Cosafa history books, as Zimbabwe went one notch above Zambia in title wins.

Going into yesterday’s match, Zimbabwe were tied on four titles apiece with Zambia and securing the highest number of titles in the tournament made yesterday’s victory even sweeter.

Zambia have been the reason for a number of heartaches the Warriors have suffered in the past and any win over them must be fully celebrated, even if it’s a friendly.

Some may dismiss yesterday’s victory as minor and argue that most countries don’t take their best players to the tournament since it’s not part of the Fifa calendar, but coach Sunday Chidzambwa should savour the Warriors’ record breaking and not allow shortcomings beyond their control to distract from the achievements of his boys.

Whatever reasons some may proffer to discredit the significance of the Cosafa Castle Cup, any team that clocks up a record five tournament titles, amateur or professional, deserves to be champions, so nobody can argue about the Warriors wearing the Cosafa Castle Cup crown.

Our Warriors are worthy champions and were simply the best team in the tournament despite playing the most number of matches, since they were forced to play in the preliminary group stages. If at all, it was unfair to the Warriors because they met teams that had been resting while they had already played up to three matches inside a week, but they never complained, only proved their mettle to lay claim to the Cosafa Castle Cup kings tag.

The win yesterday told the story of the Warriors’ indomitable courage. They had not been given a chance, even by some of their countrymen, who felt they would stand no chance against the likes of South Africa and Zambia.

Although they never got to play Bafana Bafana, their dominance was obvious in all matches, with the exception of fatigue manifesting itself once in a while.
Chidzambwa must be saluted for his solid tactics that have enabled him to remain unbeaten in the Cosafa Castle Cup. We have known him for being overly defence minded, but he sprinkled his solid defensive game with a fearsome attack that scored the highest number of goals in the tournament.

Only once did the Warriors fail to score in the tournament, the goalless draw with Madagascar. Otherwise they hit the back of the net more than once in every game and were particularly rampant in their 6-0 mauling of Seychelles and 4-0 thrashing of Mozambique.

Fans pay to watch goals over and above good football and we congratulate the Warriors for providing both in abundance. There was never a dull match they were involved in and we hope this achievement inspires them to dream big beyond the Cosafa Castle Cup.

Yesterday they won the Cosafa Castle Cup only because they believed they could win it. The players must now dare to dream big and build on yesterday’s triumph as we head into the African Nations Championship (Chan) and African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

There is really nothing to be afraid of, but to believe in themselves as they did throughout this tournament. We have come a long way since winning our first major title, the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Cup by beating Kenya 2-0 in 1985 and it’s high time we challenged for a continental championship, having proved our regional dominance.

We have a real chance of landing Chan, which is a tournament for players that are active in their native countries’ national leagues, by the evidence of our performance in the Cosafa tournament.

We hope this team will not be tampered with, but reinforced for us to challenge the so-called big boys of African football.

Before that, however, the boys must just enjoy their deserved history making victory.