Last throw of the dice for Warriors

WARRIORS skipper Benjani Mwaruwari has missed his own October 2 deadline to return to action and has been ruled out of Saturday’s World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Namibia in Windhoek.

An 18-man squad left for Windhoek on Thursday.

Mwaruwari has missed the start of the English Premiership for Manchester City and his absence deals a cruel blow to Brazilian coach Valinhos who is looking at one last great leap in the campaign after last month’s 0-0 draw against Guinea at home.

The Warriors are third and should group leaders Kenya beat Guinea and Zimbabwe beat Namibia, the Warriors might be still in with a chance.

Benjani’s absence and that of defender Noel Kaseke and midfielder Justice Majabvi through injuries was confirmed by manager Sharrif Mussa.

Gilbert Mushangazhike of Orlando Pirates, Quincy Antipas who plays in Denmark and Cuthberth Malajila are the remaining strikers in the team as Dynamos striker Edward Sadomba has reportedly gone AWOL.

Method Mwanjali is back in the team with Pride Tafirenyika, goalkeeper Willard Manyatera and Ovid Karuru are also in the squad together with regular David Kutyauripo of CAPS United, among other local-based stars.

The rest of the team is unchanged -- Obert Moyo, Onisimo Bhasera, James Matola, Zvenyika Makonese, Esrom Nyandoro, Joel Luphahla, Tapuwa Kapini, Energy Murambadoro, Tinashe Nengomasha.

The Warriors need to win the match against Namibia and hope that Kenya beat Guinea and they will then enter FIFA’s complex mathematics of qualifying for the next round, where eight best losers will join the 12 group winners.

The 12 teams ranked first automatically qualify for the third round. For the eight teams ranked second, the following system will be adopted to rank fairly teams ranked second in the current groups of four or three teams: For teams in groups of four, a new classification will be made for teams ranked second. Only their results with teams ranked first and third in their respective groups (home and away) would be taken into account. Results of matches with the team ranked fourth will not be taken into consideration.

For teams ranked second in groups of three, all their matches will be taken into account.

The teams will then be put on a table and classed based on the number of points, the goal difference then the highest number of goals scored.

The eight best losers based on this classification will be added to the 12 group winners, and the teams would be through to the nest round of qualification.

If teams ranked eighth and ninth are equal on all those measures, a playoff match will be organised next month.

The 20 countries that qualified for the third round will be drawn in five groups of four teams and the first three teams in each group will qualify for the final tournament of the 2010 CAN along the organising country (Angola).

For the group of Angola, in case Angola qualifies for the 3rd round, the other three teams in its group will qualify automatically for the CAN 2010. The ranking of
this group will be done to determine which team will qualify for the World Cup.

For the group of South Africa, in case South Africa qualifies for the 3rd round, there will be two separate rankings. The other three teams will be ranked within the group in order to determine which team will qualify for the World Cup (this ranking will not take into account the results of these teams with South Africa).

Another second ranking will be carried out with the four teams taking into account all the group's results to determine the three teams that will qualify for CAN 2010. South Africa must be at least amongst the top three to qualify for the Nations Cup.

Squad:
Goalkeepers: Tapuwa Kapini (Platinum Stars, SA), Energy Murambadoro (Bidvest Wits, SA)

Defenders: David Kutyauripo (CAPS United, Zim), Onismor Bhasera (Kaizer Chiefs, SA), Zhaimu Jambo (Gunners, Zim), Zvenyika Makonese (Santos, SA), James Matola (Free State Stars, SA), Obert Moyo Pretoria University, SA), Method Mwanjali (CAPS United, Zim)

Midfielders: Esrom Nyandoro (Mamelodi Sundowns, SA), Tinashe Nengomasha (Kaizer Chiefs, SA), Joel Luphahla (Platinum Stars, SA), Ovidy Karuru (Gunners, Zim), Pride Tafirenyika (Shooting Stars, Zim), C Matawu (Motor Action, Zim)

Strikers: Cuthberth Malajila (Highlanders, Zim), Gilbert Mushangazhike (Orlando Pirates, SA), Quincy Antipas (Blokhus FC, Denmark)

Group 2 Log:

	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Kenya	5	3	1	1	6	2	10
2	Guinea	5	2	2	1	6	3	8
3	Zimbabwe	5	1	3	1	2	2	6
4	Namibia	5	1	0	4	3	10

www.newzimbabwe.com