adminas a tricky pairing as the two teams had already agreed on a friendly date later this month.
According to the draw conducted in Lusaka on Friday the Warriors, who are the holders after Sunday Chidzambwa and his men won on home soil in 2009, will begin their title defence at the quarter-final stage against the Flames after getting a bye in the group stages.
The tournament, which comes back following a three-year absence, will be sponsored by the South African Breweries through its Castle Lager brand and will run from July 6 to July 21 in Zambia. But Zimbabwe are pencilled to play Malawi on May 25 as part of the preparations for the World Cup qualifiers against Egypt and Guinea next month.
The teams will then meet at the quarter-final stage of the Cosafa tournament on July 13 in Lusaka.
Mutasa said the Warriors are looking forward to the Cosafa tournament as defending champions and record four-time holders.
The subject is likely to crop up when the technical team headed by German football expert
Klaus-Dieter Pagels hold their scheduled meeting this afternoon.
“It’s a fair draw but it becomes tricky now that we play them in the friendly game and again at the Cosafa tournament. But I believe everything is under control and I am sure we will discuss this with the coach when we meet tomorrow (today).
“We are rebuilding our team and it’s most likely that when we go there for the friendly match we will not use exactly the same team that will play at the Cosafa tournament.
“Right now we are still rebuilding a team and I am sure that friendly match will offer an opportunity to assess other players that the technical team may need to look at.
“For instance, we have seen two players who convinced the coaches that they deserve a place in the first team from the recent friendly match against Zambia.
“So we need to give more players chance and we have an advantage that we might have some of our foreign-based players whom we are also keen to see if they can fit into the system that we want,” said Mutasa.
This year 14 countries will take part in the tournament that will also include guest nations Tanzania and Kenya from the Cecafa zone.
Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Angola were the seeded teams and were handed byes together with Malawi and Mozambique.
The eight lowest ranked nations from the region according to the April Fifa World Rankings were pooled into two groups of four sides each.
The remaining six top seeds enter the competition in the quarter-final stages, with hosts Zambia already paired against Mozambique in their last eight clash.
Group A contains East African guests Tanzania, Namibia, Mauritius and Seychelles while Group B features another guest nation from East Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. The teams will play each other in a round-robin format, with the top sides in each pool advancing to the quarter-finals.
South Africa will take on the winners of Group A, while Angola await for the victors in Group B. The opening game of the tournament will be played in Lusaka on July 6 when Tanzania take on Mauritius.
Matches will also be played in Kabwe and Kitwe.
The Cosafa Cup returns for the first time since 2009, when then hosts Zimbabwe defeated Zambia 3-1 in the final. The tournament was first held in 1997 as a regional championship for Southern African sides. Zimbabwe lead the honours list with four titles, while Zambia, South Africa and Angola have three each. They are the only countries to have won the event.
“Obviously as defending champions we would want to do well at the tournament. The aim is to win the Cup again but our main problem in the rebuilding exercise at the moment is the unavailability of time with the players. “There are many talented players out there who have the capabilities to play in the national team but we would need to get them together and see if they can grasp the philosophy that we want to build our team on. So it’s important to have more time with them. We are hoping to get another friendly against Lesotho and we pray that the plans come materialise,” said Mutasa. Cosafa president Suketu Patel says Cosafa Cup’s future is now assured after thrashing out a new deal with the sponsors.
“We have sufficient funds now to host the tournament, maybe not the ideal tournament, but at least it will be a tournament,” Patel said in Lusaka after the draw.
“For us it is a start of something that we can build on so that in future years it goes on growing.”
The 2010 event was cancelled after Angola pulled out at the last minute as hosts.
Cosafa Draw
GROUP ROUND
06/07/13 Tanzania v Mauritius 14h30 (Lusaka)
Namibia v Seychelles 17h00 (Lusaka)
07/07/13 Kenya v Lesotho 13h00 (Kabwe)
Botswana v Swaziland 15h30 (Kabwe)
08/07/13 Mauritius v Namibia 14h30 (Lusaka)
Tanzania v Seychelles 17h00 (Lusaka)
09/07/13 Lesotho v Botswana 13h00 (Kabwe)
Kenya v Swaziland 15h30 (Kabwe)
10/07/13 Tanzania v Namibia 15h00 (Kabwe)
Mauritius v Seychelles 15h00 (Lusaka)
11/07/13 Kenya v Botswana 15h00 (Lusaka)
Lesotho v Swaziland 15h00 (Kabwe)
QUARTER-FINALS
13/07/13 QF1: Zimbabwe-Malawi 13h00 (Lusaka)
QF2: South Africa-Win Group A 15h30 (Lusaka)
14/07/13 QF3: Angola vs Win Group B 13h00 (Kabwe)
QF4: Zambia vs Mozambique 15h30 (Kabwe)
15/07/13 REST DAY
16/07/13 Loser QF1 vs Loser QF3 15h00 (Kitwe)
Loser QF2 vs Loser QF4 17h00 (Kitwe)
17/07/13 Win. QF1 vs Win. QF3 17h00 (Ndola)
Win. QF2 vs Win. QF4 20h00 (Ndola)
18/07/13 Win Plate SF1 vs Win Plate SF2 17h00 (Kitwe)
19/07/13 REST DAY
20/07/13 Loser SF1 vs Loser SF2 15h00 (Ndola)
Win. SF1 vs Win. SF2 18h00 (Ndola).
Online Reporter