AFTER watching his Under-20 national side suffering a startling 0-2 loss to Mozambique in the Cosafa Championships in South Africa on Sunday, coach Tonderai Ndiraya condemned his players for lacking basic football techniques.

The defeat left the Young Warriors virtually out of the competition, as they have to beat Lesotho by at least eight goals and hope South Africa lose to Mozambique today for them to advance to the next stage.

The local football fraternity somehow finds it difficult to accept losing to countries they feel are minnows, forgetting that these countries are heavily investing in player development, whilst Zimbabwe’s junior structures are dormant.

There is no denying that it was always going to be a tall order to get the best out of players that have been in lockdown for the whole season and had not seen any action until they landed in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa last week.

However, what seemed to baffle Ndiraya is that most players attached to Premier Soccer League clubs lack basic football skills.

Canada-based youth coach Collin Nyabadza agreed with Ndiraya’s assessment that local youth teams can’t match their regional counterparts due to different approaches in grassroots development.

“In a way, I agree with coach Ndiraya. We have serious problems with our game at junior level. We are not teaching kids basic soccer skills properly. At youth level, our emphasis should be on basic techniques such as passing, ball control, shooting and dribbling, and not tactics,” said Nyabadza.

“Which explains why you are bound to find players in our PSL struggling to pass or control the ball. At youth level, winning should not be our top priority. Rather the priority should be on development. But because in Zimbabwe we prioritise winning over player development, we end up age cheating because most of our youth coaches want to win at all costs,” he said.-Chronicle