adminThe tournament, which makes a comeback after three year absence, will be played in Zambia from July 6-21 and organisers said they have poured in over R6m for this year’s edition.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe launch in Harare yesterday, Pagels said the tournament had come at the right time as the new-look Warriors need more exposure to help their efforts to come up with a strong side following the disbandment of the national team by Zifa late last year.
“It’s a good tournament and we hope to use the opportunity to look at other players that we have. I am sure this Cosafa tournament is for locally best players only,” said Pagels.
“Normally we would need to have two teams; one for the Cosafa and CHAN tournaments and the other with foreign-based players for the World Cup and Africa Nations Cup competitions.”
This year’s tournament will feature 14 teams, including guests Tanzania and Kenya from the Cecafa zone.
Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Angola were the top seeded teams and were handed byes from the first round matches.
Malawi and Mozambique were also handed byes following the withdrawal of Madagascar and Comoros Island.
The eight lowest ranked nations from the region according to the April Fifa World Rankings were pooled into two groups of four sides each.
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.
The remaining six top seeds enter the competition in the quarter-final stages.
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.
Pagels said he was looking forward to a good performance as Zimbabwe will be hoping to defend their title as defending champions as well as record holders with four titles in the bag.
The Warriors will begin their quest on July 13 at the quarterfinal stage against Malawi.
However, the German coach is worried with the way they are handling the rebuilding exercise.
“We are rebuilding and that means we have to identify more players. That’s the only way we can come up with a stronger team,” said Pagels.
“I am not really happy with the way we are doing it. For me it is better if we could have regional tournaments because coaches from the regions know their players and if they can come up with their best from all over the country I am sure that would make better selection.
“We wanted to do it but there was no money so we had to come up with this short way to identify new players and for me I am really sure that in some areas in Zimbabwe there are five or six more players we can use but we cannot identify them because we have a problem to go there and to build select teams from provinces and districts.
“That’s the difference with other countries, for example Zambia, when we went there they had a tournament with 160 players from all over the country. They had not only that tournament but before that they had another tournament to select players from the provinces.
“They did this over a period of over three months but we only had two days to prepare our team and that’s the difference. It doesn’t make it easy but we will work hard. My technical team, from my side, is really really only interested in football.
“They know about football and it’s easy to work with them and I am really happy because I trust them. Whatever we discuss they want to continue to identify good players and to come up with a strong team for the future.”
Delta Beverages marketing director, Maxen Karombo, said they were delighted to renew their partnership with Cosafa which aims to uplift the profile the game in the Southern African region.
Karombo also revealed that two lucky Super Fans will be sponsored to go and watch one of the main matches at the tournament.
“We are proud to be part of this historical occasion today and do promise that the Castle Lager branding will certainly change the image of the Cosafa Cup this year.
“Delta Beverages, through Brand Castle, have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with football, through our sponsorship of soccer in Zimbabwe for over 40 years.
“This Cosafa edition will be the most exciting edition of all, with various activities lined up to better our game in Zimbabwe and beyond,” said Karombo.
Cosafa chief operations officer, Sue Destombes. welcomed the reunion with Castle Lager, a brand which had become synonymous with the tournament since its inception in 1997.
Destombes said this year’s tournament will be used to promote Cosafa’s partnership with United Against Malaria, which was founded ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup as an alliance of football teams, celebrities, health and advocacy organisations, governments and corporations in the fight against the disease.
Online Reporter