Veronica Gwaze-Zimpapers Sports Hub
A new wave of belief and confidence is sweeping through the Mighty Warriors camp as the senior women’s football team wind up preparations for their two-legged second round of the Olympic qualifiers against Malawi.
The first leg is scheduled for October 9, at Bingu Stadium with the return fixture pencilled to take place at the National Sports Stadium four days later.
Based on the Fifa rankings, Zimbabwe and Malawi received a bye in the first round of the qualifiers together with 27 other nations.
They will be joined by Comoros, Madagascar and Mauritius who won their first-round fixtures, after beating Sudan, South Sudan and Djibouti respectively to progress to the second round.
For the first time in years, the Mighty Warriors, now under new coach Stella Gotal, have a bigger contingent of foreign-based players in their ranks.
That, coupled with vastly improved camping conditions, has brought renewed hope within the women’s game.
“We are happy that we finally feel loved and noticed… the conditions have improved and even the association executive took time to visit us here to show that they value us,” said one of the players.
“We just want to focus on our preparations; everything has been going on well and we are happy that we have more internationals so this time it’s a good balance that will give us a unique flair and some unpredictability when we step onto the field of play.”
The full-strength Mighty Warriors are in their second week of preparations with the latest and last addition being captain Emmaculate Msipa, who joined the squad late last week.
Ten of the 26 players in camp are foreign-based, with six of them seeking their first national team caps.
Mighty Warriors coach Stella Gotal says her focus is on building a unified, organised and confident side ahead of the Malawian battle.
“At this stage, we are working on several aspects of our game where we are establishing our principles on and off the pitch as well as in and out of ball possession,” said Gotal.
“We aim to improve our organisation and communication as a team while also working on how we want to react in different moments of the game.
“This is our first camp together, so we also have to be realistic about the amount of information we give the players in such a short period of time, but the objective is to create clarity and make sure everyone understands their role.”
The coach wants her charges to understand the challenge of playing away from home and be mentally prepared for the big battle.
“First impressions are key so I expect us to be organised, disciplined and brave enough to play our type of football,” she said.
“Playing away from home presents a different challenge, but we want to approach the match with confidence and compete from the first minute until the last.”
The technical team is also working on ensuring that the players are at the same fitness level.
“We have players coming from different environments so naturally, they arrived at different levels of fitness and match readiness,” Gotal said.
“We have been assessing everyone individually while also bringing the group together as a team.
“The attitude and commitment have been very good, they are responding well and every training session gives us an opportunity to understand the group better and establish the standards and principles we want to follow.”
