adminfailing to play in Tuesday’s defeat to Rwanda.
Zimbabwe will play their last group match against the hosts and defending champions Tanzania on Saturday needing a win to progress to the next round of the tournament.
The Warriors, who have been invited to the tournament reserved for East African countries, are struggling to adjust to the Dar-es-Salaam conditions where they are booked in a dirty hotel in the downtown part of the city.
They have also complained loudly about the quality of the food and have struggled to get a reliable supply of clean bottled water.
The Highlanders’ duo of Eric Mudzingwa and Rahman Kutsanzira and Gunners’ skipper, Qadr Amini, were the ones badly affected by the diarrhoea.
Mudzingwa even missed the match against Rwanda as he was bed ridden while the highly-rated Kutsanzira was anonymous and Amini failed to provide the spark associated with his game.
But yesterday there was a ray of hope for the team as the Zimbabwe Embassy in the Dar-es-Salaam and BancABC came to the Warriors’ rescue. The bank, which has
business interests in Tanzania, will now be providing the team with bottled water for the duration of their stay in the tournament.
Speaking from Tanzania last night, team manager Wellington Mpandare, said the players were recovering and they were expecting Mudzingwa to be back into the team’s fold.
“The players are recovering and we have been receiving assistance from the Embassy. BancABC will now be providing us with water. We use 10 cases of 12x500ml of water per training session so that would translate to about 20 cases per day. We are really grateful for the kind gesture,” said Mpandare.
Turning to the crunch match against the hosts on Saturday, Mpandare said everyone in camp was still optimistic they will do well to progress to the quarter-finals.
Zimbabwe, who beat Djibouti 2-0 in their opening match on Sunday, need an outright win against Tanzania to secure a passage into the quarter-finals.
A draw would not be enough as Tanzania – who also have three points – have a better goal difference after they beat Djibouti 3-0.
“Our chances are very high. In our first game we had the defensive partnership of Daniel Veremu and Eric Mudzingwa, which worked well, but when Eric got sick we were forced to use Tinashe Masika who found the going tough.
“Now that Eric is fit I am sure that we will come up with a winning formula.
“We have also been playing our matches at 2pm (3pm Zimbabwe time) and here it is very hot but we will play the match against Tanzania at 5pm Zim time and this should also work in our favour as we have been struggling in the hot weather conditions,” said Mpandare.
Platinum forward Donald Ngoma, who was on target in the first match, is likely to be leading the Warriors’ quest for goals again at the weekend.
But Mpandare said coach Norman Mapeza has also said he will give all the players a run in this competition since it is a developmental platform.
“Cliff Sekete is the only player who hasn’t played and is likely to get a place because if we don’t progress it would be our last match here.
“And Norman told the boys that everyone should get a chance to play.
“Tongai Mangwendere is carrying an injury and we got to know about that when we arrived here and will no longer play a part while Leonard Fiyado is likely to play on Saturday.
“We didn’t train today (yesterday) as it was a rest day and will resume tomorrow (today) and will work on the areas which the team was found wanting against Rwanda,” said Mpandare.
Online Reporter