Zimbabwe are the kings of Southern Africa after winning a record fifth Cosafa Cup with a 3-1 victory over Zambia in Phokeng, North West, on Sunday.
Zimbabwe are now this tournament’s most successful team with one more title than South Africa and Zambia, who are both tied on four. But that is not the only thing that should make Zimbabweans happy.
This victory and this tournament showed how healthy the country’s football is, outclassing their Southern African rivals with a B-team.
The A-team were in Equatorial Guinea earlier this year competing in the Africa Cup of Nations, ending an 11-year absence from the competition.
The free-scoring Warriors marked their dominance in Southern Africa by easily brushing aside their opponents from the first game to the final.
Their attack has been so potent that they did not even need Ovidy Karuru, the tournament’s top goalscorer, to beat the Zambians in the final — Knox Mutizwa, Talent Chawapiwa and Ocean Mushure did the job.
Lubinda Mundia, coming on for Mike Katiba, tried to derail the Warriors when he scored with his first touch to send the game into halftime at 1-1 but could not match the rampant Warriors in the second. The entertaining final was a perfect finale to a tournament that started poorly.
Zimbabwe gave first team coach Norman Mapeza a selection headache for the future.
- Njabulo Ngidi is in Rustenburg courtesy of Castle
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