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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE coach Ian Gorowa has hailed the spirit shown by the Warriors during their hastily-arranged international friendly against Tanzania in Dar-es-Salaam which he believes gave him the platform to continue with his building exercise of a strong national squad.Gorowa has two major assignments which he must achieve in his initial tenure as Warriors coach — the 2014 African Nations Championships finals in South Africa and qualification for the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The former Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns coach has guided the Warriors to their third CHAN finals appearance and has already begun preparations for the tournament, which will burst into life in Cape Town on January 11.
In Dar-es-Salaam, Gorowa took 18 players and gave a recall to veteran goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini whose dance with the senior national team seemed to have ended following the disastrous 2013 Nations Cup qualification campaign.
Kapini was captain of the Warriors side that blew a 3-1 first leg lead over Angola to crash 2-0 in Luanda and tumble of the Nations Cup which was hosted by South Africa early this year.
Gorowa gave a run out to such players like Buffaloes’ centreback Themba Ndlovu, Warren Dube of How Mine, Obey Mwerahari (Monomotapa), Hwange’s Nkosana Siwela and Wonder Kapinda of Black Rhinos.
“It was a good game. The whole objective was to see more players and assess them on a stage that is different from their usual league games.
“It was at short notice, we originally wanted a game against Libya or Tunisia but in the end it was Tanzania who came along and I must commend the boys for showing up for the game and for playing with character.
“We brought in Kapini, he was going through a terrible time at his club (AmaZulu) and I think this game was also good for him in terms of regaining his confidence, he had a couple of very good saves and his experience also worked well for us because the other players always have something to learn from him.
“Of course, we will see what happens going forward but the experience of players like Kapini is always invaluable. He put his hand up once we asked him to come for the match and that is the kind of commitment you need from national team players,’’ Gorowa said.
The Warriors coach, whose side are in the same group with Burkina Faso, Uganda and Morocco had been hoping to get an international friendly against Libya or Tunisia in order to grant his players a chance to test their pedigree against North Africa opposition.
“We had a guy like Themba Ndlovu who had never played for the Warriors before but I was happy that (Carrington) Nyadombo used his experience to steady things and they had good partnership in central defence and Themba played very well but just happened to get tired towards the end and we had to take him off in the dying stages.
“Carrington is a big strong centreback and we need to look at having him for the future games and I was happy that he used his experience well to give guidance to Themba.
“In fact only two players, Tafadzwa Dube and Gerald Ndlovu didn’t play from the team that travelled but we still have another match against Mozambique on December 8 and we are going to wind up our CHAN preparations by playing against Gabon in Johannesburg then we fly out to Cape Town,’’ Gorowa said.
Gorowa, unbeaten since he took over from Klaus Dieter Pagels, was however not amused by the move by Highlanders to block the pair of Milton Ncube and Innocent Mapuranga from turning for national duty for the Tanzania game and the no show by the Harare City pair of goalkeeper Maxwell Nyamupangendengu and midfielder Silas Songani.
“It was unfortunate that Highlanders team manager Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo categorically told one of our managers that they would not be releasing their players and the Harare City players simply ignored calls.
“I am aware of the PSL championship race and we know that each of Dynamos, Highlanders and Harare City want to win the title but this game did not affect anything because it was on a Fifa calendar and it was on a Tuesday and I had tried to take two players each from those in the title race so it was not as if one club was going to be disadvantaged.
“I have been travelling round the country watching games but it is always good to assess these players in an international match.
“I also think it is time our players and clubs learnt to have pride in their national team and for the record Safa will now not clear any foreigner to join a South African club unless they have national team caps so you can see there is value in playing for your country.
“Safa are doing this to ensure they also keep high standards in their Premiership rather than flood it with mediocre players,’’ Gorowa said.
Online Reporter