Mighty Warriors return

The Mighty Warriors returned home yesterday afternoon, after a one-week tour in which they played three matches, won two and drew one.
They hammered the Uruguay developmental side 5-1.

“We were happy with the team’s performance especially in the last match in which we were given three red cards but managed to sail through with the first card coming in the first half,” said Mugadza after the Mighty Warriors won 2-1.

“But playing a team like Uruguay and managing to contain them means it was a good tour for us especially when we prepare to go to places like North Africa for qualifiers where we may find dubious refereeing.

“The players managed to handle it.” The coach said their immediate task was to defend their Cosafa championship title in Namibia this October but they will continue to play in some friendly matches and are also likely to host the Uruguay team in July here.
“We are hoping that the league starts soon so that the players remain in shape,” said Mugadza.

“Uruguay indicated that they may come here for a return match so we need to be prepared for them, too.

“We need to play, at least, two matches before we go to Namibia and we know all the attention would be on us as the defending champions. The Africa Cup of Nations draw would also be conducted in October and we will know of our programme.”

The coach said her team’s level of fitness was not where he wanted, in this tour, as the Marange Resources National Soccer League was still off season.
However, she observed they were in better shape than Uruguay.
“It was all about what they wanted to achieve that made them do well in these friendly matches but their level of fitness was not up there,” said Mugadza.

“Our last match was the Unity Cup and the girls were really fit as the league had just finished.
“At least, having exposure at the highest level is helping the team because in real competition they would be confident that they have played other teams at a high level.
“We are improving as a team as you can see in this tour we incorporated some players from the Under-20 team, and players are graduating from the junior team breaking into the senior team because there is need for continuity so that our future remains bright.”

Zimbabwe Women’s Soccer chairperson Mavis Gumbo, who was the head of delegation, said the trip was successfull and the South Americans hosted the team well.
“We had good matches and the hosts said they were now working on coming to Africa to play us and see how we are running our football,” said Gumbo. Uruguay, as a country, was very warm to us and the mayoress of the capital Montevedio hosted us at her chambers together with officials from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the African ambassador. They expressed interest in knowing more about Africa not only in the sporting field but in economic and social spheres because of our visit there.

“We just hope we will continue to have a good relationship with the Uruguay Football Association and, maybe, in future, they will agree that their men’s team also play our men’s team, the Warriors.
“They have a very competitive men’s team in the world.
“As Women’s football we have laid the foundation and started a relationship with a team from South America but it should not end there but as a nation we should use this opportunity so that our football continues to develop.”