Pasuwa vindicated
Zimbabwe’s football critics are conspicuously silent on the continued snubbing of goalkeeper Petros Mhari from Warriors duty, this time by his own club coach who has dual roles.
When former Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa overlooked Mhari, he was battered left, right and centre by armchair critics who were quick to accuse the mentor of pursuing a Dynamos agenda at the national team.
This was despite a known football fact that coaches select players who suit their game plan and not necessarily the Soccer Star of the Year finalists.
Among the critics was South Africa-based former Warriors goalkeeper, Tapuwa Kapini who even went further to suggest that Pasuwa was overlooking Mhari because selection was being influenced by player agent, Gibson Mahachi.
The ageless Kapini, clearly basing argument on online reports, felt Mhari had no competition for the Warriors number one jersey.
Another conspiracy theory was that Mhari was being punished for snubbing Pasuwa when he wanted the goalkeeper at Dynamos, not once but twice.
Pasuwa left the Warriors in February and FC Platinum coach, Norman Mapeza came in with a new technical team.
Mapeza is Mhari’s coach at club level BUT has overlooked Mhari on the two occasions that he has been in charge of the Warriors.
CAPS United’s Edmore ‘Zikeeper’ Sibanda was trusted in goal for the friendly match against Zambia and despite coaches being allowed as many substitutions as agreed, there was no room for Mhari.
A second opportunity came at the weekend when Zimbabwe hosted Liberia in a 2019 AFCON qualifier at the National Sports Stadium.
Mhari was included in the squad and when Zikeeper pulled out with an injury, Mapeza summoned George Chigova from South Africa to assume the number one jersey while Highlanders’ Ariel Sibanda was the substitute.
Again Mhari was relegated to number three.
This was by his own club coach, not Pasuwa, and the armchair critics have seemingly forgotten the campaigns they championed when Mhari was overlooked last year as he went on to claim the Goalkeeper of the Year award. It is slowly turning out that Pasuwa was right on Mhari after all! H-Metro
