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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa is impressed by the spirit and commitment shown by his charges as the players appear determined to succeed at next year’s Africa Nations Championships in South Africa.
Zimbabwe yesterday put behind them some of the hiccups that affected their camp this week as they braved the bad weather conditions to continue with their preparations.
The side took part in a gym session in the morning and had another field workout in the afternoon despite the showers that had threatened the training session.
“I am happy with the commitment and efforts being put in by the players. So far things have been going according to plan.
“There has always been a positive response from these guys. They understand what we are aiming for and we always try to keep them focused on the task.
“We are trying to work on our fitness and that is why we have engaged the high performance centre, at least, to have some thorough workouts.
“We conducted some fitness tests today (yesterday) to see how far we are and I can’t really complain. We still have some time to work on that.”
Gorowa, however, was concerned by the duo of Peter Moyo and Misheck Mburayi who had not joined camp by yesterday evening.
Both players are believed to be in South Africa on trials.
This leaves the Warriors technical team to work with 27 players after Highlanders leftback Bruce Kangwa also asked to be excused because of personal commitments.
Gorowa has until January 1 to submit to Caf his final 22-man side for the tournament.
Zimbabwe were placed in Group B that also includes Morocco, Burkina Faso and Uganda.
They will open their account at the tournament with a clash against Morocco at Athlone Stadium, Cape Town, a day after hosts South Africa, who will be using Greenpoint in the same city, would have played against Mozambique in a Group A opener on January 11. Gorowa said they had hoped to have camped longer for thorough preparations but resources were not permitting and as a result has prepared a crash programme that should culminate in a friendly match with Gabon on January 7 in Johannesburg.
“We are not going to break for the Christmas holiday. Maybe, we might release the players for one or two days during the Christmas holiday to meet with family and friends and then come back again to continue with our preparation.
“This is because we are a little bit behind schedule and we would want to catch up. Ideally we wanted to have at least six weeks of camping but because of logistical problems that was not possible.
“So we have to work with what we have. We cannot keep crying over lost time because we cannot replace it,” said Gorowa.
The Chan tournament will kick off on January 11 in South Africa and the final has been set for February 1, 2014.
Zimbabwe will be marking their third appearance at the event and, crucially, the Warriors will be seeking to go past the group stage for the first time.
Zimbabwe dropped on the Fifa World rankings again yesterday to close the year outside the top 100.
The Warriors slipped one place and are now 107 in the world while they also dropped in Africa to number 30. For the third month running, the Warriors continued to lose ground and sadly the latest fall came despite their 2-1 win over Mozambique at Barbourfields this month which extended Gorowa’s unbeaten run since he took over the reins this year.
Online Reporter