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Eddie Chikamh0i Sports Reporter
WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa says his history-making troops at the recent CHAN tournament will form the core of the national team as attention now shifts to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Gorowa yesterday praised his bunch of locally-based players and challenged the foreign-based contingent to fight for places after his troops marched to an heroic semi-final finish at the tournament that ended in South Africa at the weekend.
The Warriors, who arrived home on Monday night, were received at a welcome ceremony by the Sport, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister, Thabitha Kanengoni-Malinga.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony Gorowa, who is expected to resume contract talks with the Zifa management, said he was impressed by the team chemistry and is now bracing for the Afcon qualifiers set to begin in May.
The Warriors coach also revealed they have received several offers for friendly matches, which he now hopes to use to build a formidable squad for the Afcon and World Cup competitions.
“Obviously, as coach or as a team we need to improve but, as I said, this is the core of the national team,” said Gorowa.
“That’s one thing we should be proud of, having our local-based players as the core of the national team which is very, very important.
“At least, they now understand how we play as a unit and the philosophy of the team. Now it’s up to the foreign-based players to come in (and challenge for places) but we will help them. We have quite a number of friendlies lined up.
“Everybody now wants to play with us. So I think that’s the opportunity which we can then use to include the other foreign-based players and then we can come up with a very good squad.
“By the time 2015 comes we should be ready. It’s not going to be a long road because we will need to play only about four games and then we can qualify. That’s what we now need to work on.”
Zimbabwe concluded their tour at the CHAN tournament on Saturday when they lost 1-0 to Nigeria in the third place play-off but they could count themselves unlucky after losing the semi-final on penalties to Libya.
Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze also hailed the Warriors for their gallant efforts and promised that a meeting will be held soon to determine their rewards.
Zimbabwe took home US$250 000 for finishing fourth.
Kanengoni-Malinga promised that government will ensure the players get all the outstanding fees and bonuses owed to them.
She said government was also seeking to rope in the business community to harness more resources for the team.
“We are still engaging the corporate world to see if we can get more resources to ensure that the outstanding daily allowances and appearance fees are paid.
“Ministry is also aware of the outstanding bonuses which we are informed Zifa will make good from the tournament prize money.
“As government we will ensure that Zifa honours its commitment to you,” said Kanengoni-Malinga.
The Warriors surpassed their own targets as they had qualified for the previous two editions of the tournament and failed to progress from the group stages on both occasions.
However, Gorowa believes they could have done better had they taken their chances.
While the defence was their mainstay, the Warriors were let down by their poor finishing as they managed only three goals in the five matches they played at the tournament.
“When we started we said we wanted to qualify to go to CHAN and then when we qualified we said we wanted to do better than the previous editions.
“I think most of these achievements we have made them and now we just have to concentrate on the Afcon 2015 in Morocco.
“Definitely, we cannot be entirely happy with the whole tournament. I thought, maybe, we could have done better but if you look back at where we are coming from as a nation, I think obviously that’s an achievement.
“But we can only do better,” said Gorowa.
The Warriors coach said they needed to dig deep in search of strikers at home but said he was happy with the quality of the forwards in foreign bases.
“We need players who can score goals because you can’t tell me we have to defend and defend. Going forward I think we need to improve on that. It’s something that we are working on.
“However, if you look most of our players who are playing outside the country they are strikers. So, I think, in this tournament we were a bit handicapped.
“Locally, we didn’t have such quality and again the little that we had has been taken away so I think when the next CHAN comes around we really have to look deeper.
“But it seems the problems was not only confined to us because if you look at the tournament’s top goal scorer Bernard Parker, his team was eliminated at the first round and he still managed to finish ahead of everyone else with four goals.
“The good thing, though, is that we have a very solid defence which is the core of modern football. You have to build everything around the defence but at the same time we need people who score goals,” said Gorowa.
Online Reporter