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From Petros Kausiyo in CAIRO, Egypt—-
WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa is wary of continental surprise packages Ethiopia ahead of the draw for the 2014 African Nations Championships to be conducted at the Confederation of African Football headquarters here today. Gorowa flew into the Egyptian capital yesterday in the company of team manager Sharrif Mussa, Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze and Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede.
Zifa president Cuthbert Dube, who sits on the Caf Under-20 sub-committee, was already in Cairo for the various standing committees meetings that have been taking place since the weekend.
Gorowa said he would be ready to face any team when the Warriors, one of the seeded sides, go into the hat where any three of the 12 of the other qualified teams that are not seeded would be drawn against them.
Caf last night also clarified that they would also now hold a draw for the venues and the groups among the seeded teams which could mean that the Warriors could yet be drawn into Group B and play their games in Cape Town.
Gorowa was confident the Warriors side he has at his disposal would this time go beyond the CHAN group stage, something that the classes of 2009 in Cote d’Ivoire and 2011 in Sudan under Sunday Chidzambwa and Madinda Ndlovu failed to do respectively.
The Warriors coach was also happy to note that his team had been seeded for the 2014 tournament and insisted that they should build on their reputation and ensure they advance to the finals of the competition to be staged in South Africa next January.
“When you get to this stage you do not want any preferences, you just have to face whoever you are drawn against.
“But the good thing is that the ones who are seeded are probably the teams that you don’t want to play against in the early stages of the tournament.
“I think for us what is key now is to ensure we go beyond the group stages. We have built a reputation of qualifying for CHAN but we need to back it up by qualifying for the knock-out stages and going all the way to win the cup,’’ Gorowa said.
Gorowa said he was aware that there are some tougher and tricky opponents from the three pots where Zimbabwe’s opponents will be picked but insisted that he would accept any outcome.
“I don’t think there is a better draw but for me probably the team that I would want to avoid is Ethiopia . . . They are playing some good football as shown by their progress in the World Cup qualifiers and qualification for CHAN.
“Of course, Mozambique have done well in the CHAN qualifiers, Burkina Faso are strong, Gabon are doing well, Nigeria are tough, but really for me I would want to avoid Ethiopia this early because they are on top of their game.
“But our focus at the moment is to qualify for the knock-out stage and that will also be a measure of how prepared we are getting for the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifications which will start a couple of months after the CHAN tournament.
“As a coach I am very confident about the team’s chances, and why should I be shy about going all the way to the final when we have the capacity to do so?
“We have enough time to prepare and we just have to be confident and to be in the right shape,” Gorowa said.
Gorowa and Mussa had an opportunity to meet the Zifa hierarchy of Dube, Gumede and Mashingaidze in Cairo and Mussa said they had used the platform to outline to the association’s leadership their grand plan for adequate preparations.
Zimbabwe’s preparations for their third successive CHAN appearance are expected to swing into life a week after the Premiership season ends on November 30.
Mussa said the coach wanted ample time to also work on the physical conditioning of the players, which even Gorowa’s predecessor Klaus-Dieter Pagels expressed concern about during the Cosafa tournament in Zambia in August.
Gumede said they had also noted what Gorowa and Mussa had outlined to them and would ensure that Zifa puts in place a strategic plan to fulfil the technical crew’s wishes.
“At the end of the season the national team players will just have at least a seven-day break and they will be expected to come into camp.
“The coach has noted that our physique may be a letdown and there is need to work on that.
“That means for the national team players it will be a busy period and there is little to indulge over the Christmas holidays.
“In fact at this level the players ought to be more responsible and to be careful about how they indulge, what food they ingest and what drugs they take even if they have a prescription,’’ Gumede said.
CHAN seeded Teams:
South Africa (hosts), DRC, Ghana, Zimbabwe
Twelve other qualified teams: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Gabon, Mali, Libya, Uganda.
Online Reporter