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Ellina Mhlanga : Sports Reporter
MIGHTY Warriors coach Shadreck Mlauzi believes their high-profile international friendly against Egypt at Rufaro today will give them a glimpse of what to expect when the two teams meet in Cameroon for the Africa Women Cup of Nations finals. Today’s friendly match between the two Nations Cup finalists will kick off at 4pm.“It’s always good to play friendly matches even with teams that you will play. It will give you indicators as to what to expect rather than to go into competitions and you find yourself all of a sudden being overcome by the situation of facing the opposition,” said Mlauzi.
“But definitely it’s a plus on our side knowing that we haven’t assembled our best possible squad.
“But I am sure they are bringing their best squad, so it gives us indications as to how best we can approach them when we have really fully started our preparations given that everything will be in order by then.”
The Mighty Warriors have been slow in reporting for camp with players from such clubs like Black Rhinos, Weerams and Blue Swallows joining camp later than expected.
“We don’t want to focus on these administrative issues as the technical team. But it has a bearing on us as well because we have to obviously communicate with the management and see how best we can solve it,” said Mlauzi.
“But at the moment, as you can see, it affects our planning.
“So had we known in advance that this was going to happen, there are a lot of players out there. Of course, they haven’t been given enough playing experience particularly at the national team, but they are good players all the same.
“What is needed is to build players. But due to the fact that maybe we have not had a number of friendly matches (in the past) we decided as the technical team to go for players that have the experience of playing for the national team.”
The coach remained confident his team will give a good account of themselves.
“I am born to win, so is my team. So we are going out there again to win a football match, that’s very important, for my individual statistics as a coach and for our team as well as we build for the future,” he said.
“We are largely an ambitious team despite the challenges that we meet.”
Zifa spokesperson, Xolisani Gwesela, said his association would not tolerate clubs who hold on to players called for national duty.
“The teams delayed to release the players, but we do not condone that.
“When we call players into camp we urge those clubs to release them immediately to join others.
“That behaviour of releasing players late is unacceptable,” said Gwesela.
Black Rhinos secretary, Panganai Mahachi, said they got clearance yesterday to release the players because of breakdown of communication within their league.
“We got our clearance letter a bit late. We had to go through the channels of the army for clearance so we got the clearance today (yesterday),” said Mahachi.
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