….Adieus Young Warriors
HARARE – The ‘useless band’ of Young Warriors that is currently representing Zimbabwe at the 2018 edition of the Under 17 COSAFA Challenge Cup in Mauritius continued with their losing streak against Malawi today.
The Warriors who failed to come to the party in the game were massacred 5-0 by the Young Flames who reignited their hopes of progressing to the next stage from the group phase.
Ironically, Malawi who met Zimbabwe at the same stage in the 2017 edition won by the same score line and almost similar fashion to the one they used in the previous tournament to underline the stagnant path Zimbabwe continues to linger in.
The Young Flames enjoyed a peaceful game that they controlled from the word go up to the final whistle and the result exposed the ego of Zimbabwe coach Tafadzwa Mashiri who ignored calls to select a quality team at his disposal for the tournament.
Mashiri who has come under fire from other patriotic Zimbabweans mainly in UK, opted to go for nepotism in his selection by picking many of his arsenal from BN Academy owned by renowned coach Beki Nyoni and overlooked players from the United Kingdom recommended to his staff.
In the first match played on Saturday, the Young Warriors went down 3-2 to Swaziland and were expected to put a fight against Malawi in a must win tie for the two teams if they were to entertain any hopes of progressing and qualify for the Under 17 World Cup tournament.
Sadly for the Young Warriors, the match against Malawi was the one they opted to be shambolic as they went clueless on how to play football as each player failed to pass the ball to the next player.
The game started with Malawi making their intentions known to their opponents as Nyirenda who had a fair game registered a short that narrowly missed the goal in the 7th minute.
In the 10th minute Malawi build up an attack and finally managed to break the deadlock through the man-of-the-match Patrick Mwaungulu.
Malawi continued with their attractive passing football and found the back of the net again in the 25th minute. The Flames went to half time with a healthy 2-nill.
After the breather, the Young Flames continued where they had left from and got a third goal in the 56th minute through Mtoso.
Mwaungulu then managed to complete his brace in the 77th minute with an acrobatic shot to move the tie beyond the reach of the out of sorts Zimbabwe team.
Young Mitole then completed the routed two minutes later to seal the fate for Zimbabwe and sent the Young Warriors packing.
The loss means Zimbabwe have lost the chance to grab the sole ticket on offer to qualify for the Under 17 World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations for the Under 17.
