adminDomingo Burgueno Miguel Stadium here.
The match kicks off at 10pm Zimbabwean time.
Zimbabwe will now play three matches with Uruguay national team, with the second game scheduled for Thursday and the hosts will feature some players from the Uruguay Under-20 side in that tie.
The last game on Saturday will also be against the Uruguay senior team again. Logistical challenges saw the other teams from South America, which had been invited for the five-team tournament — Argentina, Chile and Paraguay — failing to turn up.
This has now left the hosts having to face Zimbabwe in a three-part series.
The Zimbabwe delegation finally arrived here in Maldonado, a resort town which is just two hours’ drive from the capital Montevedio, in the late hours of Sunday after a lengthy flight from South Africa.
The Mighty Warriors were booked to stay at a sub-standard sports academy, housed at the stadium where they will be playing their games.
Upon their arrival, a local handball team was still booked at the facility and were sleeping inside the rooms.
The visitors were advised they would only be able to check into the rooms after two hours and the players and their technical staff spent their time relaxing in the bus.
Team doctor Margaret Maulana, after inspecting the facility with Zimbabwe protocol officer who had come here as an advance party, advised Uruguay women’s football chairperson, Nair Ackerman, that the Mighty Warriors’ health could not be guaranteed at the hostel.
The Uruguayan officials said their association, just like their country, was struggling and they did not have the financial resources to book the visitors in good hotels.
A compromise was reached and the team was later booked at the poor hotel, which is however better than the hostel, and the delegation has to walk for, at least, 10 minutes to the dining facility for their meals.
The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant.
The Uruguay Football Federation doesn’t have its own bus and hired one to ferry the team from the airport to Maldonado.The Zimbabwean delegation found it fascinating that the country, which has world-class players such as Liverpool star Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan and was the first country to host the Fifa World Cup, could have such challenges in the administrative arm of its national sport.
Uruguay has a population of about 3.3 million people and has won more Copa America titles than any other South American nation.
Mugadza said their spirits had not been dampened and they knew that touring South America was not like touring North America.
“This is the type of reception we will get when we travel in some African countries when we would be playing our qualifiers,” said Mugadza.
“What we are interested in is that teams from this continent have made their presence felt in the world soccer with the local men’s team being the first team to host the World Cup, and win it, and we all saw what they did at the Fifa World Cup in South Africa in 2010. So, we really want to learn from them how they are managing to make progress with football against all these odds, we have seen their situation which we may say is worse than the situation back home but in Africa, in terms of football, we are still very far behind them.
“l am happy that my players have not been affected and are focused on tomorrow’s (today) game, we are targeting at winning at least two games and win the trophy and nothing else.
“We are going to field the best team and then on Thursday bring on some of the players as we would be playing Uruguay select with some of their Under-20 players and on Saturday when we play the senior team again we will field our best team again as we want to win the two trophies on offer.”
Communication has been a problem as the locals speak Spanish but physiotherapist, Sharon Mkumbuzi, who understands basic Spanish, is trying her best to bridge the gap.
Mugadza will be hoping that her strikers — the Black Rhinos trio of Rutendo “Madzimai” Makore, Kuda “Porongi” Basopo and Violet Bepete – will come to party.
Online Reporter