Mighty Warriors on a high

Mighty Warriors coach, Rosemary Mugadza said there has been a lot of improvement from the girls and they are hopeful next year will be a better year.
Mugadza said the Women’s League had contributed a lot in improving the players and made life a bit easier for them as the national technical team.
“I think we are looking forward for a better year next year as you know that there are a lot of competitions for us and this is the time where we can gauge our team and see if we are improving or not.

“It is also gives us an opportunity to check on what are we are supposed to do as a team to progress in other fix­tures in the near assignments.
“And as a team we have finished on a high unlike last year as you know that we have improved. Last year we beat South Africa 3-0 and we have managed to win 5-0 today. There is a lot of improvement and we thank Marange Diamonds for coming in and sponsor­ing a league for women’s football. They have helped us a lot

in terms of fitness and everything. We only did tactical work and it worked for us,” said Mugadza.
The Mighty Warriors gaffer said they are looking forward to next year’s com­petitions and preparations have to start now.

“We are happy that we are improving as a team. We are looking forward for the next competitions that we will be facing.
“We have the All-Africa Games qual­ifiers, we have the Afcon as well as Olympic qualifiers. This is the starting point for us to prepare for such tourna­ments.
“Next year there might be a Cosafa tournament and hopefully the Marange Resources Women’s league will start early.

“We will be monitoring our players here and there and if funds permit we will call our girls into camp to see how they are doing because we need to keep in shape as a team for major tourna­ments that we are preparing for,” said Mugadza.
Mugadza said all the stakeholders are aware of the international competitions the team will compete in and what is supposed to be done if the team is to make an impact in those tournaments.

“They know exactly what we are sup­posed to do as a team as they know about the competitions. As the associa­tion they are the ones who register us for those tournaments because they are aware of these competitions and we have the support from the league as well as Zifa . . . we are grateful for that,” Mugadza said.
Zimbabwe Women’s Football chair­person, Mavis Gumbo shared the same sentiments with Mugadza and said plans are already in line for interna­tional friendly matches to prepare the team for their various qualification competitions they will take part in.

“We are looking forward for more international friendly matches and in mid March, between the fourth and 17th we will be going to Uruguay. I have got the confirmation it will be a small tournament so definitely we are going to participate in it. Thereafter we won’t stop until we go to the next competi­tion.
“Next year we are expecting a lot of improvement and I promise and I tell you that losing to Nigeria will be a thing of the past,” added Gumbo.

The Women’s football boss paid trib­ute to Marange Resources for support­ing women’s football and said they expecting stiff competition next year in the women’s league with two more teams coming in.
“For this year I am saying when we started our league scores used to be 18-0 or 20-0 and the margins were quite high but when we progressed with time there was a lot of improvement and we had more normal football scores like 3-1, 4-2, 1-0.

“We owe a lot to Marange Resources our sponsors, even the physique, the way our players have been playing, there was a lot of improvement because of this league that has been sponsored by Marange Resources.
“Next year since we will be having 12 clubs in the league we are expecting tougher competition. I feel sorry for the technical team because they will have serious problems in choosing who is who considering that we will have 12 clubs and everyone will be playing for the jersey,” said Gumbo.