Marange ready for Young Warriors task

NEWLY appointed Zimbabwe men’s Under-20 national team football coach, Simon Marange, got down to business last Thursday as the Young Warriors began preparations for the Four Nations tournament to be held in Malawi this week.

Marange, who currently serves as Orlando Pirate reserve team coach, has described his appointment to be head of the Under-20 men’s national team as the biggest coaching job he has had in his career.

“The task is very big, probably the biggest of my career so far. So, I am a bit nervous but looking forward to it and I am excited for the opportunity to serve the country,” said Marange.

Marange is relishing the task that lies ahead and is confident of adding value to the development of the young players. Zimbabwe is set to face Zambia in the semi-finals of the Four Nations tournament, which also pits Kenya against hosts Malawi in the other semi-final.

He hopes to use the experience that he garnered with South African giants Orlando Pirates. The Young Warriors appointment was his first national team gig and he believes he is ready to step into the next chapter of his coaching career.

“I am ready for the job and I think it is a good challenge as I feel that I can add value and bring a different application based on what I know and acquired in my experience.

Having spent part of his coaching career responsible for preparing players from the reserve team into professional players at Orlando Pirates, Marange is hoping to use the experience he had with the Soweto Giants in preparing the Young Warriors into fully fledged national team players.

“This was my job at Orlando Pirates (preparing players for professional football). I have worked with players that are close to professional football and we call it the professional development phase where we get the players ready for the highest level and prepare them to play under pressure and consistently.

“I will apply a lot of things that I have learned at Orlando Pirates to prepare the players for the next levels, which are the Under-23 and senior national teams,” he said.

Having gone down to business on Thursday, Marange was immediately impressed by the quality of players the country has.

“We have a good group of players. There is good quality and I believe we can do well at the tournament.

“We have some objectives that we have set as a team in terms of what we have done in training; to see if we can apply it in competitive football matches. That is the first step,” said Marange.