KHAMA BILLIAT scored a beauty, but his
partner-in-destruction, Knowledge Musona, produced a horror miss — which could
haunt him for years — as the Warriors only fished a point from the pond of the
Cranes, on a night their swagger and powerful show deserved all the loot, here
last night.
The iconic Cairo International Stadium was treated to
probably the best game of this 2019 AFCON Cup finals, an open end-to-end stuff,
as the two Group A rivals — whose fans have been staging a war on the
cyberspaces of Twitter — fought long and hard and couldn’t be separated at the
end.
Uganda would be the happier of the two teams, after somehow
escaping with a point despite being exposed, now and again, by a rampant
Warriors team that played with both style and penetration and would have been
worthy winners of this contest even by a two or three-goal margin.
The Cranes have four points, from two matches, with a game
against the Pharaohs to go while the Warriors have a point from as many games,
and if they can beat the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, they will
certainly make history by qualifying for the knockout stages of this tournament
for the first time.
How is that possible, some will rightly ask?
Well, this tournament throws a lifeline to the four best
third-placed teams, in the six groups, to accompany the top two in each group
into the eliminators and four points for the Warriors might be enough, not only
for second place, and an automatic slot in the Last 16, but at worst, one of
the top third-place slots.
“I want to congratulate my players on their performance
against Uganda,’’ Zimbabwe coach Sunday Chidzambwa said. “Our performance was much better than against Egypt. We
wasted a lot of chances, but the players really did well.’’
How they didn’t make it easier for themselves, by winning a
game they thoroughly dominated once they fell behind to another avoidable goal,
will be a talking point in their hotel room for long periods in the coming days
because this was their day, their game and their destiny.
And, in the brutal post-mortem that followed soon after the
referee blew to end this contest, all the focus fell on their skipper Musona.
The forward, whose goals powered these Warriors to this
AFCON jamboree, whose leadership has shone like a beacon since he took over the
captaincy and whose X-factor has usually been the difference between draws and
victories, was the fall guy last night after a shocking miss that should have
settled this contest.
Five minutes after the break, the Warriors opened the
Cranes defence with a superb move that saw the ball being switched from the
belly of the Ugandans’ rearguard to the right where it was then moved to Musona
who found himself, alone, with a yawning goal pleading with him to just stroke
the ball into its comforting arms.
It’s the kind of opportunities that, in street football,
the attacking team is allowed to pick the ball up because it’s given they would
have scored and the defending side can restart the game just to ensure time
isn’t wasted.
But Musona clipped the ball with his right foot, and from
close range, somehow directed it against the crossbar in an act so incredible
it had to be seen, to be believed, had to be replayed on the television
monitors to be confirmed as true, so close to fantasy it took some minutes to
believe this was reality.
It’s a moment which, just like Wilfred Mugeyi’s horror miss
in the first game against the Egyptians at AFCON 2004, is set to be talked
about for years to come and, if the Warriors fail in their bid to make the
knockout stages, this will feel brutal on the skipper who has served his
country very well.
He should have scored in the first half, too, his control
of the ball helping him fool two defenders before he turned and, as goalkeeper
Denis Onyango went down, he chose the far post, his tilt backwards betraying
his intentions and his effort going over the bar in the 22nd minute.
It should have been the equaliser for the Warriors who had
fallen behind 11 minutes earlier to another poor goal they have conceded at
this AFCON finals.
Left back Divine Lunga made a mess of possession, lost the
ball and when it was threaded into his exposed channel, danger loomed for the
Warriors, goalkeeper George Chigova made the block, but the ball spun into open
space and Emmanuel Okwi reacted faster the Zimbabwean defence to stroke it
home.
There will be another brutal assessment here — where was
the cover for Lunga when he lost possession, could Chigova have done better
with his block and where was the covering Zimbabwean defence when the loose
ball needed to be cleared?
To their credit, the Warriors didn’t drop their heads and
appeared to use the setback to inspire them, now and again marching into the
Uganda defence with conviction and after Musona missed a fine chance, Billiat
found himself free on the left side, but drilled his effort wide of goal.
The Zimbabweans kept attacking, the three-man attack
coordinating better and their pace and movement down the wings giving Uganda
problems, and Danny Phiri just missed his connection, with his head, after a
ball was swung into the box from a dead ball by Musona.
The chances kept coming for the Warriors, with Ovidy Karuru
having a good game and five minutes before the break, the equaliser their play
deserved, finally arrived.
Musona chested the ball into the path of Karuru who
galloped into acres of space down the channel, took him time as he waited for
reinforcements, and then released a lovely cross for Billiat who sneaked in
between his markers and caressed it with a deft touch to push it beyond his
former Sundowns teammate Onyango.
Like they did against Egypt, Zimbabwe came after the break
a better lot and Musona should have put them ahead in the 50th minute while
substitute Evans Rusike thought he had scored, in the 68th minute, when he
flicked the ball past Onyango and, time appeared to stand still, as it rolled
towards goal.
However, the big goalkeeper recovered to scramble it from
crossing the line.
But it could have been a disaster for the Warriors in the
74th minute when Lunga lost possession and Chigova was forced to make a save
from a deflected clearance, the ball falling into the path of striker Patrick
Kadou who volleyed over the bar from close range.
Zimbabwe
George Chigova, Tendayi Dariwa, Divine Lunga, Teenage
Hadebe, Alec Mudimu, Danny Phiri, Thabani Kamusoko (Marshall Munetsi 64th min),
Ovidy Karuru, Khama Billiat, Talent Chawapiwa (Evans Rusike 63rdmin), Knowledge
Musona
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