Marowa adjusts goals after NZ snub
Football is a game of opinions, says Tinashe Marowa.
The young winger was devastated when Darren Bazeley didn’t pick him for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup and he couldn’t even put himself through watching New Zealand’s opening game against Vietnam. He said viewing it would have been too hard.
After scoring seven goals in a breakout Stirling Sports Premiership season with Tasman United and being invited to two training camps over summer, Marowa was arguably the most surprising omission when Bazeley’s World Cup squad was revealed.
‘‘Football can be good or bad, and change real quick. Things have been good for me for quite a long time but when I found out I didn’t make the ‘20s, that’s when it made a turn for the worse,’’ the Zimbabwe-born player said.
‘‘I just had to take a step back. It was tough.’’
But he’s not letting the rejection define his career, saying it’s ‘‘done and dusted’’ and that there’s ‘‘no point thinking about it all the time.’’ After all, there’s a few coaches at the Wellington Phoenix who do believe in his potential, even if the under-20 selectors didn’t.
Marowa’s form with Tasman earned him a trial at the Phoenix. It is understood his captain Paul Ifill had put in a good word after the pair combined to score 15 goals between them.
A full-time professional contract didn’t materialise, but the next best thing did. Marowa was invited back to Wellington for the winter season. He’s playing in the Central League with Wellington United, an affiliate amateur club to the Phoenix, and has just been selected to travel with the Phoenix to the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens. He will be in the same squad as first team players like Hamish Watson and Ryan Lowry, and sees it as another chance to stake his claim for a professional contract.
‘‘I’m pretty excited because there are some players from the first team that are coming with us as well so it will definitely be good playing with players who have played at a high level, and with the coaches too because the coaches from the first team are coming as well. The tournament will be a good chance for me to prove myself and show why I should be involved in the first team set-up when they start training.’’
Marowa has scored five goals so far in the Central League, which is down on his high expectations. He said he’s started creating more chances for team-mates though, and he certainly enjoyed scoring the winner against Ifill’s Wairarapa United earlier in the month. ‘‘At the kick-off he came next to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘nice goal’.’’ All going well, Marowa hopes to be retained in the Phoenix environment for next summer’s Premier- ship campaign in order to continue pushing for that dream professional contract.
‘‘With me not making the ‘20s it was a tough thing to accept but I do have to remember that I am at the Phoenix and in a great place where if I play consistently things can work out good for me, and for that I’m just happy.’’