Mighty Warriors improving with each outing

Banyana Banyana in Johannesburg.
On Tuesday the two teams settled for a 1-1 draw with Zimbabwe striker Rudo Neshamba scoring first before the hosts equalised in the second half.
In their first match the Mighty Warriors lost 0-1 as the two Southern region rivals squared up again having last played in the Unity Day Cup at Rufaro in December.
But Mugadza said she was happy with the progress that her team had made as measured by their showing a Banyana Banyana side that featured at the Olympic Games in London.
“We played well compared to our first match. We had our chances and at least the strikers did well today. We scored a goal which was disallowed and our general performance was good. At least we gave them competitive practice ahead of the Afcon.
“They played at the Olympics and we expected a lot more from them but they are getting slower by the day and not grooming young players.
“If they don’t improve they may find it tough in Equatorial Guinea but football is crazy and they may fare well.
“We will continue from where we left as we have the Unity Cup coming up in December and we want to continue to feature in competitive matches as we prepare for next year’s qualifiers in various competitions,” said Mugadza.
Mugadza coach said although the new players failed to play in the two international friendly matches with only Sicelo Dube making it into the team, she is happy that they keep identifying new talent.
“We want to have a big pool of national teams and the competition has been really tough at the clubs and all the senior teams know they are no longer guaranteed of jerseys.
“We have identified some talented young players and couldn’t bring them here as we didn’t want to disturb their schoolwork but the future of women’s football really looks bright,” said Mugadza.
Indeed some fresh blood is needed into the squad as some old pair of legs like midfielder Nokuthula Ndlovu now seem to be struggling with the pace of the game and had a subdued game in the stalemate against Banyana.
Defensive midfielder Talent Mandaza, who was playing her first match since returning from military training was a poor shadow of her old self.
Stung by the way they struggled against Zimbabwe, South Africa coach Joseph Mkhonza said his team is not yet ready for the Nations Cup and the two matches really helped him to assess his team.
“We are not yet ready, remember, the last time we played a football match it was at the Olympics and our first game was on Saturday. And this was our second game and the level of fitness is still very low.
“But we now know our weaknesses and we will do our homework before the tournament starts. We will play our last friendly match against Cameroon.
“We chose to play Zimbabwe as they are one of the strongest sides in Southern Africa and we got the challenge we wanted. Zimbabwe are improving with each game and they could have been at the Nations Cup but they were supposed to win their qualifier,” said Mkhonza.
South Africa will play their opening African Cup of the Nations match against the hosts Equatorial Guinea and are in a group that also includes Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo.