Pasuwa puts on brave face. . . On future plans I will consult my manager: Callisto Callisto Pasuwa
Callisto Pasuwa

Callisto Pasuwa

Mugove Chigada in Libreville, Gabon
WARRIORS coach Callisto Pasuwa says he will consult his manager Tendai Mahachi first before deciding on his future following Monday night’s carnage in Libreville where they were humbled 2-4 by Tunisia to crash out of the Afcon finals.

Senegal, who were held to a 2-2 draw by Algeria in the other group B match, progressed to the quarter-finals together with Tunisia.

The Warriors finished last in Group B with just a point, courtesy of the 2-2 draw against Algeria in the group opener and Pasuwa will now be forced to reflect and review his situation at a time his relationship with the Zifa board has been shaky.

“On that one I can’t say because I have my superiors and I will have to hear from my manager on how we continue from here,” Pasuwa said.

He admitted that the three group matches, in which they conceded eight goals, badly exposed their shortcomings.

“Again it is a matter of concentration, how we defend in the first 15 minutes of the game. Remember in the three matches that we played, we were losing concentration and losing ball possession and they scored. The way we defended when being attacked was poorly done. I think we also lacked cohesion going forward,” said Pasuwa.

Not even the presence of Knowledge Musona, back from an injury sustained in the opening game, could help the Warriors.

Defensively they proved to be poor and Musona and Tendai Ndoro’s goals only gave a bit of respectability to the score line.

“You can see from the three games, if a team was pressing us high, we lost possession and they scored. We also need to keep possession much more. You also need to slow down the tempo of the game and be in control. When defending, we should not have left too much space in the centre. At this level, if you make a mistake, you will be punished,” said Pasuwa.

Tunisia had been labelled weaker than Senegal and Algeria going into the tournament, but they handed the Warriors their heaviest defeat at the Stade de l’Amitie on Monday night.

Pasuwa conceded that the Tunisians were well polished.

“If you have watched Tunisia, you could see there is this technique of knowing where to put the ball and where exactly the next teammate is. You need more time preparing for the game to perform like that. Continuation is needed in terms of our side. When coming to a tournament of this magnitude, you need to put everything in place for you to do better,” he said.

Ndoro, who rose from the bench to score Zimbabwe’s second goal, said the country must look ahead.

“We should put this behind us and try to look to the future. They scored four and we believed we could score four. In football it happens, but in this case we could not come back into the game. There are many things we can correct, but in football we take it like that and we see what happens in the future. The most important thing is teamwork and playing for the flag. If we can improve on that and leave individual things of saying I want the glory, we will be untouchable. I can’t do it alone,” said Ndoro.

Skipper Willard Katsande said they did not learn from their mistakes in the past matches and that led to the defeat.

“You cannot afford to lose the ball during a critical stage of the game. We got punished in that critical moment, at the start of the game. When you are playing top teams in Africa, you cannot sleep like this, you will be punished as a team. You could see that in all the three matches, we conceded in the first 15 minutes, a key period of the game when you should be highly focused,” said Katsande.

Zimbabwe’s Afcon finals record

2004
Coach: Sunday Chidzambwa

Group C
Results: Zimbabwe 1-2 Egypt, Cameroon 5-3 Zimbabwe, Algeria 1- 2 Zimbabwe

Table

P     W     D     L     F     A     GD     Pts
Cameroon     3     1     2     0     6     4     2     5
Algeria           3     1     1     1     4     4     9     4
Egypt             3     1     1     1     3     3     0     4
Zimbabwe    3     1     0     2     6     8     -2     3

2006
Coach: Charles Mhlauri

Group D
Results: Zimbabwe 0-2 Senegal, Nigeria 2-0 Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe 2-1 Ghana

Table
P     W     D     L     F     A     GD     Pts
Nigeria           3     3     0     0     5     1     6     9
Senegal          3     1     0     2     3     3     0     3
Ghana            3     1     0     2     2     3     -1     3
Zimbabwe     3     1     0     2     2     5     -3     3

2017
Coach: Calisto Pasuwa

Group B
Results: Zimbabwe 2-2 Algeria, Senegal 2-0 Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe 2-4 Tunisia

Table

P     W     D     L     F     A     GD     Pts
Senegal          3     2     1     0     6     2     4     7
Tunisia          3     2     0     1     6     5     1     6
Algeria           3     0     2     1     5     6     -1     2
Zimbabwe     3     0     1     2     4     8     -4     1

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