{"id":48171,"date":"2021-10-13T19:39:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=48171"},"modified":"2021-10-13T19:02:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T17:02:32","slug":"mapeza-shifts-focus-to-afcon-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mapeza-shifts-focus-to-afcon-finals","title":{"rendered":"Mapeza Shifts Focus To AFCON Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Warriors coach Norman Mapeza has shifted his focus to preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals to be played in Cameroon next year after Zimbabwe\u2019s hope of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup finals ended yesterday.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe goalkeeper Talbert Shumba\u2019s shocking howler gifted Ghana a 1-0 victory at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.<\/p>\n

Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey\u2019s rising shot, from a free-kick directly at Shumba, zoomed over the giant goalkeeper\u2019s head and hit the back of the net in the first half.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists after the match, Mapeza expressed disappointment over the loss and admitted that qualification for the 2022 World Cup was no longer in the Warriors\u2019 hands. He said:<\/p>\n

We always get disappointed after losing any match but, like I said when I came in, I knew where the team was.<\/p>\n

Of course, I promised the nation that I will try my level best to revive the World Cup campaign but now everything is out of our hands.<\/p>\n

What is important at this moment is to continue working hard. I think from today\u2019s game, and the other one we played in Ghana, we had so many positives.<\/p>\n

So, we have to keep working hard in the remaining two matches and try to put up a team that will go and play at the AFCON tournament.<\/p>\n

He, however, refused to blame Shumba for the loss after the South African-based goalkeeper\u2019s blunder gifted a goal to the West Africans. Said Mapeza:<\/p>\n

I was a footballer before. I used to make mistakes as well but my coach never dropped me out of the team.<\/p>\n

He needs to be encouraged, so, if I am going to drop him because of that mistake, I would be like Judas Iscariot.<\/p>\n

This is football, mistakes are bound to happen, it wasn\u2019t his day, he made that mistake but I am proud of what he did, he never looked down.<\/p>\n

The Warriors play South Africa away from home and then host Ethiopia in the final two 2022 World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Norman Mapeza is one of the most celebrated Zimbabwean footballers to have played for the Warriors. He is the head coach of FC Platinum which plays in the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League where he won two league titles with the platinum miners. He also had… Read More About Norman Mapeza<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Warriors coach Norman Mapeza has shifted his focus to preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals to be played in Cameroon next year after Zimbabwe\u2019s hope of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup finals ended yesterday. Zimbabwe goalkeeper Talbert Shumba\u2019s shocking howler gifted Ghana a 1-0 victory at the National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":48170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,16,15],"tags":[378,1493,2189,1685,1688,509,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-48171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-homepage-english","9":"category-sport","10":"category-twitter","11":"tag-afcon","12":"tag-africa-press","13":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","14":"tag-norman-mapeza","15":"tag-the-warriors","16":"tag-warriors","17":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\nMapeza Shifts Focus To AFCON Finals - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Warriors coach Norman Mapeza has shifted his focus to preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals to be playe ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mapeza-shifts-focus-to-afcon-finals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mapeza Shifts Focus To AFCON Finals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Warriors coach Norman Mapeza has shifted his focus to preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals to be playe ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mapeza-shifts-focus-to-afcon-finals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-13T17:39:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-13T17:02:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/10\/img-6167110d08c7c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1083\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mapeza-shifts-focus-to-afcon-finals\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mapeza-shifts-focus-to-afcon-finals\",\"name\":\"Mapeza Shifts Focus To AFCON Finals - 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