Callisto Pasuwa
Petros Kausiyo in WINDHOEK, Namibia—
Zimbabwe 0-0 Madagascar
ZIMBABWE’S Warriors are all but out of the 2016 Cosafa Castle Cup after they failed to win their second game when being restricted by plucky Madagascar in a Group A encounter at the Sam Nujoma Stadium last night. The Warriors now need a miracle to squeeze through from their group after remaining third and two points behind joint leaders Swaziland and Madagascar.
On a night when the pair of Obadiah Tarumbwa and Charlton Mashumba conspired to lead in missing chances, the Warriors endured a frustrating night as the Indian Ocean islanders turned on a disciplined act with their goalkeeper Chretien Andriamifehy putting up a man of the match performance to also deny Zimbabwe.
With Swaziland crashing hapless Seychelles 4-0 in an earlier match, it would now need Sihlangu and Madagascar to play a 0-0 draw while the Warriors post a massive win in their last game in order to progress.
But on the evidence of their showing last night, there is nothing to suggest that the Warriors could hammer Seychelles by more than five goals. Their coach Callisto Pasuwa was however putting on a brave face and insisted that they were still in with a chance.
“We played a Madagascar which was determined. We went there and we missed so many chances. Luck wasn’t on our side and at the end of the day we got a point again and it’s back to the drawing board.
“We can’t surrender now. We will play our last game and we will see how it goes. I think there’s a game to go and we will see how it goes,’’ said Pasuwa. Until last night Zimbabwe and Madagascar had met only just once in the Cosafa Castle Cup – a first round tie in 2007 which the Warriors won 1-0 via Kingston Nkatha’s goal.
But the islanders have been improving with each outing at this tournament and only last year they sent then champions Zambia tumbling out before eventually finishing third.
Madagascar who made a late switch of coaches with Auguste Raux returning for his third stint, posted their first win in their last seven matches when Claudel Fanomenza’s solitary strike settled matters against fellow Indian Ocean islanders on Saturday night.
This meant that pressure had already mounted on the Warriors as they arrived at the Sam Nujoma Stadium knowing that anything short of a victory over Madagascar would signal yet another disastrous Cosafa Castle Cup campaign for them following their embarrassing exit from the preliminary stage in last year’s edition in South Africa during which they suffered their biggest defeat in the history of this competition – a 4-1 drubbing by Namibia.
Raux said he had studied Zimbabwe’s game and planned on containing them and trying to hit them on the break. “We knew that it was going to be a tough game we knew how they play and we tried to hold them and then counter attack,’’ Raux said.