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THE Zimbabwe Warriors will today vie for the bronze medal in the African Nations Championships when they take on Nigeria's Super Eagles in Cape Town in a third-place play-off match. The disappointment of the team's heartbreaking loss in the semi-finals, when they crashed out in the penalty shoot-out lottery, is still pronounced among millions of their fans who feel that fate dealt them a cruel hand on Wednesday evening.
Some of the fans, in their moment of anger, have suddenly lost their capacity to reason and have, surprisingly, resorted to throwing brickbats at coach, Ian Gorowa, accusing him of getting his tactics wrong against the ultra-defensive Libyans and criticising the players who missed in the penalty shoot-out lottery.
It's surprising that a football community, which has never seen any of its representative national teams scale such lofty heights in the past 34 years, can suddenly find the ammunition to criticise these Warriors who became the first group to not only emerge out of the group stages of a continental tournament but go all the way to the semi-finals.
In two previous appearances at the CHAN finals, in 2009 and 2011, the Warriors failed to negotiate their way past the group stages but Gorowa and his troops did not only do that in South Africa but, after five matches at the tournament, they are still to lose a match.
Some of the fans, in their moment of anger, have suddenly lost their capacity to reason and have, surprisingly, resorted to throwing brickbats at coach, Ian Gorowa, accusing him of getting his tactics wrong against the ultra-defensive Libyans and criticising the players who missed in the penalty shoot-out lottery.
It's surprising that a football community, which has never seen any of its representative national teams scale such lofty heights in the past 34 years, can suddenly find the ammunition to criticise these Warriors who became the first group to not only emerge out of the group stages of a continental tournament but go all the way to the semi-finals.
In two previous appearances at the CHAN finals, in 2009 and 2011, the Warriors failed to negotiate their way past the group stages but Gorowa and his troops did not only do that in South Africa but, after five matches at the tournament, they are still to lose a match.