By Goodwill Zunidza

Zimbabwean football fans keenly await the Warriors’ friendly international against Qatar at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha tonight hardly knowing what to expect.

Qatar are tricky opponents whom Zimbabwe have never played against outside the Asiagate era but there are underlying issues causing anxiety among the Warriors faithful.

New boss Mario, from Romania and the second East European mentor ever for the Warriors after Croatian Zdravko Logarusic, appears not to have settled well on the job, over and above the heavy defeat his lads suffered to Algeria’s Desert Foxes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on his first outing.

The controversial coach is demanding a new style of playing and claims the players are resisting his tactics.

The apparent turmoil in camp has sharply divided fans’ opinion with some rooting behind his radical stance, others lambasting the abrasive approach reportedly used while another section sits on the fence.

The collective fear is that any wholesale change to the team’s composition and composure with just a month left before the 2025 African Cup of Nations finals kick off in Morocco could be destructive.

What breeds this uncertainty is that the 60-year old gaffer was not himself involved in selecting the squad that’s currently touring the Middle East.

And he only had two days training with a whole 24 players to assess before the Algeria tie last Thursday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and could not have been responsible even for picking the starting 11.

Kaitano Tembo, the assistant coach, obviously pinpointed who to start but then he too has only worked with the team on a single previous occasion.

The little influence Mario managed to infuse came after the half-time pep talk with the team down 0-3 and he made five changes that ultimately reduced the deficit for the match to end 1-3.

But again the second-half change of tempo could also have been due to a slowdown by their opponents realizing they had already wrapped up the game

“We didn’t select the squad,” Mario was frank enough to point out after the final whistle.

“These are more or less the same players as before, so we had to adapt to the players who were there,” he stressed.

It is tonight’s game against Qatar in their Doha cauldron that Mario may begin to stamp his subdued authority.

Cushioned by a week-long familiarity with the players, he has perhaps by now chosen his favourite 11 from the bunch, not minding who is on the bench, that can show glimpses of what his game plan is really about.

Until the line-up is released late afternoon there is no telling how his team will look like in Doha as the happenings in camp remain murky.

What is known so far is that Mario apparently sees no value in players on other side of 30s, suggesting that the axe could begin falling on 39-year old first-choice goalkeeper Washington Arubi.

This would be the first major sign of a looming squad overhaul.

But such a shift while necessary for the long term, or maybe the Afcon mid-term, looks ineffectual for the short term assignment against the Asia champions today.

Both matches against Algeria and Qatar were ideal to condition the Warriors for their Afcon opener with Egypt, another Arabic team, and could have served their purpose had they produced stability in camp.

But the absence of key players, including the Wolves duo of Tawanda Chirewa – who featured for only 45 minutes but scored against Algeria before departing – and Marshall Munetsi coupled with the non-appearance of other mainstays like Jordan Zemura and Divine Lunga indicates an incomplete formation.

Although the Wolves duo was understandably allowed by Zifa to concentrate on their club, which is introducing a new coach, there are murmurs that Munetsi has demanded full captaincy of the team if he is to be available.

Presently Marvellous Nakamba, the captain, is walking wounded which has limited his contribution to the team, a scenario that led to Arabic-speaking defender Gerald Takwara, who is based in Libya, being thrust the armband for the Middle East tour.

The coach can however hope for the best from a bad situation by testing an alternative midfield combination of Prosper Padera, Jonah Fabisch and Sean Fusire despite it looking lightweight for the gruelling Group B encounters against Egypt, Angola and South Africa in Morocco.

Qatar are not going to be sympathetic to Mario’s woes but will be out to prove that their 5-0 whacking of the Warriors during the Asiagate era was not due to match-fixing but merit.

It is the coach’s duty to prevent a netball scoreline from erupting again.