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Harare Bureau
AFTER watching his band of local Warriors failing to win their third match before a home crowd, Zimbabwe’s coach Ian Gorowa will this evening shift attention to his South Africa-based legion as he assesses their performance in an international friendly at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.
The Warriors were expected to get a feel of the match venue last night for the tie that kicks off at 20.30 hours tonight.
Under Gorowa, the Warriors failed to win their third game in as many matches at home when they drew with neighbours Mozambique in a World Cup, African qualifier at Rufaro on Sunday after having played to stalemates against Mauritius and Zambia in the African Nations Championship qualifiers.
By failing to win a single match during the recent World Cup qualifiers, the current squad of Warriors had the ignominy of being the first Zimbabwe national team to complete the World Cup qualifiers without a single victory since the new mini-league format was introduced.
Gorowa blamed fatigue and the pressure of playing at home for his side’s disappointing show against Mozambique and has now blended some of the players with the South Africa-based unit for this evening’s Battle of the Limpopo.
Indications yesterday were that Gorowa had taken nine players from the local league and these will be mainly deployed in the defence and midfield positions while the South Africa-based players – Cuthbert Malajila, Kingston Nkhata and Knowlegde Musona will form the attack.
Last week, Gorowa was in South Africa where he had a chance to look at some of the players in the Absa Premiership while he has also roped in Eusebio Manwere who plies his trade in Mozambique.
“We are playing mostly with the South Africa-based guys who are still fresh and fatigue is not an issue in this game.
“I am hoping to assess the South Africa-based players and see who is who and I think it will be a good game against the South Africans.
“That’s why if you look at the squad the majority of the players are based in South Africa and then blending them with a little bit of local players.
“The South African game is mainly more to see and assess where we are in terms of international levels,” said Gorowa on the eve of their departure.
After his appointment as national team coach, Gorowa said his short term plan was to take the Warriors to the Chan finals while the longer plan is to play in Morocco in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
During the dead rubber World Cup qualifier against the Mambas, Gorowa only called up one foreign based player in midfield hardman Willard Katsande, who is also expected to be given a run against the South Africans tonight.
Katsande was naturally disappointed after the latest draw but believes the Warriors should not lose heart but strive for a better performance.
“I think the tie (against Mozambique) was a game of two halves. We played well in the first half and dominated but our second half was not good.
“But that all starts with the preparations. Our preparations were not okay because there were some mid-week games for the local league but it’s not an excuse.
“The game, however, was a good platform for the locally-based guys who should be going for Chan finals,” he said.
Being the only foreign-based professional in the Warriors side, Katsande said he did not feel any weight of expectations as he created the buffer zone for his defence.
“I am used to the set-up of the national teams and I did not feel any pressure to deliver as the only foreign-based player.
“I had to do the job and I think I did my best but I am disappointed that we did not get three points in this campaign,” he said.
But while Katsande and his Warriors team-mates were wearing long faces after the disappointing home draw, Mozambique’s Elias Pelembe was pleased that the Mambas had finished in a better position than their neighbours.
Pelembe, who plays for South African side Mamelodi Sundowns, had a few chances at goal and said he was making his first official game for Mozambique this year.
“This is my first official game this season and I think we had a nice game. We have a new crop of players and most of them came from the Chan squad but it’s a fair result in that Zimbabwe scored first but we did not sit back.
“We tried to push forward and we got the equaliser,” said Pelembe.
Online Reporter