Injury hit Young Warriors face hosts Zambia
YOUNG Warriors coach Bekithemba ‘Super’ Ndlovu is hopeful four of his key players can shrug off injuries in time for today’s Mopani Copper Mines Cosafa Under-20 Championship semi-final clash against Zambia.
The quartet of chief striker Delic Murimba, Blessing Nyamuzihwa, Tatenda Tumba and McDonald Mukunga missed the Young Warriors’ last group match tie, which they lost 1-4 to Angola, because of injury.
Murimba, the Young Warriors’ leading scorer at the tournament with three goals, Nyamuzihwa and the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Rookie of the Year Tumba have ankle injuries, while Mukunga is nursing a calf strain.
Ndlovu, who is happy that he has managed to lead the Young Warriors past the group stage, having failed to do so in last year’s edition, said they were ready for Zambia.
“When we left home for the Championship, I said we want to do better than last year and proceed to the next round.
“We’ve done that; now we are in the semifinal against the hosts and the match presents us with a chance to go to the final. We have to focus and do our best against the hosts,” said Ndlovu.
“We’ve already put behind the 4-1 loss to Angola in our last match. In that encounter, we had six players that played in the opening two games against Botswana and Lesotho out because of injuries and sickness. Devin Mhindiri was admitted to hospital after the Lesotho game with a head injury and Leonard Jani is feeling weak with Malaria like symptoms.
“We’ll see how the other guys Murimba, Nyamuzihwa, Tumba and Mukunga do in our final training session.”
Zimbabwe beat Botswana 2-1 in the opening game, with Murimba grabbing a brace. The Young Warriors went on to hammer Lesotho 4-0 to book a place in the semi-finals with a game to spare. Nyamuzihwa scored a brace against Lesotho, with the other goals coming from Murimba and Tumba.
On their way to the last four, Zambia beat Malawi and DR Congo by an identical 2-0 score line followed by a 1-1 stalemate with Mozambique.
The Young Warriors want to emulate their seniors, who brought home the senior men’s Cosafa Cup in June this year.
Zimbabwe will have to be at their best to stop Zambia, the most successful nation with 11 Cosafa Under-20 Championship titles, whose last cup glory was in 2016 when they beat South Africa in the final.
Zimbabwe and defending champions South Africa have each won six Cosafa Under-20 titles.
The Young Warriors last laid their hands on the Cosafa crown in 2007 and Ndlovu is hoping the present crop of players will claim the 2018 title.
The other semi-final will see South Africa taking on Angola, who qualified as the best runners-up in the group stages. — @ZililoR
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Sibanda also pointed to the success of the mainstream national teams in regional tournaments. “We have also held Cosafa tournaments, successfully so for that matter and all our representative national teams from the juniors up to the senior squads are participating in various competitions include Naph and Nash teams,” said Sibanda.
“The finance committee headed by Machana has been able to provide audited financial statements to the congressman and women annually and as we speak those accounts have been given to the delegates who will attend this weekend’s Indaba as per the requirements of the constitution.’’
So confident is Sibanda about the incumbents being retained that he revealed that Chiyangwa would roll out a number of programs that would take effect from January next year.
“The president will in his speech unveil a full package of what the delegates are rightfully supposed to and will get, not just free entry into football matches but we want them capacitated through such programmes like Fifa diploma and masters courses, which are lifelong but all these packages will be unveiled by the president,” said Sibanda.
The Zifa vice-president reiterated the good working relationship they have struck with the Premier Soccer League and said the association fully supported the need to align the PSL season in line with Caf requirements.